BBC News: The end of the Internet?

[Owen Blacker]

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_923000/923595.stm

Thursday, 14 September, 2000, 07:37 GMT 08:37 UK 
The end of the internet?

If the idea of the internet as a pure tool of free speech appeals to
you, take a good look. It could become the most restrictive form of
publishing, warns a new book on censorship in the UK.

Every web user knows it. You need go no further than the nearest
search engine to find things you certainly would not want to show
your grandmother. 

There are a lot of extreme websites out there, be they mean, obscene
or downright scary. The convictions of Soho nailbomber David Copeland
and former pop star Gary Glitter bear witness to this dark side of
the web. 

The question facing governments all over the world is how - if at all
- - they can protect the public, and specifically children, from harm
without neutering the creativity of the internet. 

Journalist Alan Travis, whose survey of the history of censorship in
the UK has just been published, has reached a weary conclusion. 

"Unfortunately, I think the great libertarian days of cyberspace,
whereby you can have a very powerful medium beamed into every home
which won't in some way be limited in terms of what material comes
through, is over." 

The position of the UK Government is that the same laws should apply
to the virtual world as apply in the real world, he says.
Unfortunately, these offline laws are themselves in a state of chaos.
Some of the different acts are more than 100 years old, and have
varying definitions of what is obscene. 

Sorry tales 

The British experience of censorship is not perhaps the most noble.
Great works of literature have been attacked. James Joyce's Ulysses
was banned in the UK for 14 years. 

When the publishers of DH Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover were
being prosecuted at the Old Bailey, jury members were asked if it was
the kind of book they would wish their wives or servants to read. 

The question may have sounded appropriate in the late 19th Century,
but this was in November 1960. Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport was in the
Top 20. Not many people had servants. 

It wasn't just literature, though. Even "saucy" seaside postcards
such as those of Donald McGill were declared obscene and banned in
Grimsby in 1954. 

However, a variety of television watersheds, cinema ratings, and
relaxed public attitudes have resolved many issues about standards.
It seems that the law in England is gradually moving from its
traditional targets of things that are likely to deprave or corrupt,
towards things that actually cause harm. 

But, says Travis, the internet changes the whole debate. 

Potential for ludicrous cases 

"How to enforce the law hasn't really been the issue. It has been
possible to ban the importation of dirty books, it has been possible
to close down magazines that were considered to be obscene, it has
been possible to close down video shops who sold dirty videos to
underage kids. 

"What now becomes difficult for the first time is how you enforce
those rules. The practical difficulties are what makes it a bigger
debate in some ways, and gives it the potential for absolutely
ludicrous cases and rough justice." 

If the wrong laws are adopted, he says, it could be the end of the
net as we know it. 

"This is a much more powerful medium, and one which prides itself on
universal access. But in the end it could turn out, because of the
desire of people to regulate its content, to be one of the most
narrow and restrictive in some ways." 

Crude tools 

How to find the right balance is difficult, he says, and the answers
to the problem are not clear. But he personally favours a mixture of
banning certain sites such as those which sexually exploit children,
while giving parents the tools to decide what they want their
children to see. 

And web filtering tools are still crude, he says, blocking many sites
which are innocent. These have included a site discussing Shitake
mushrooms, mistaken for something altogether different. 

Prime Minister Tony Blair has said he prefers to think of the issue
as one of parental responsibility rather than the job of government. 

But Travis warns of the Australian experience, where internet service
providers have been made criminally liable for the content of the
millions of sites that their subscribers can access. 

That, he says, would make Mary Whitehouse's attempt to shut up Alf
Garnett as part of a clean-up TV campaign look like a mere "flick
round the house with a duster". 

Bound and Gagged, A Secret History of Obscenity in Britain by Alan
Travis is published by Profile Books at £16.99

#

(Link, for those who want it:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1861972296/qid%3D969013937/02
6-7787043-6243638 -- this *will* have wrapped from PGP...   :o)


O x
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Owen Blacker
Senior Internet Developer and InfoSec Consultant, pres.co
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