By silicon.com, 21 June 2006 17:00
Telecoms and media watchdog Ofcom has published research into consumer protection for Brits on the internet.
In terms of what's been said, you might ask so what? It calls for good industry self-regulation and vigilance on the part of individual internet users.
In terms of the former, the UK is doing pretty well - the view of Ofcom, this publication and indeed others. Organisations such as the Internet Watch Foundation and Ispa could teach a thing or two to other countries.
In terms of the latter, we should all be aware of 'buyer beware' - just as we have been for decades in the offline world.
So what is the sub-plot here? The twist is that while an Ofcom is necessary to police media such as TV, radio and telecoms - still - when it comes to the internet, industry self-regulation and 'buyer beware' have so far been the usual modes of operation and fortunately, most of the time, worked out pretty well.
We will continue to hear about the examples when those approaches let us down, as individual consumers or as wider societies.
There are, after all, certain areas where legislation does make sense - in the case of catching spammers, for instance. But there are others - such as making ISPs responsible for content they may host - where the wrong legislation could bring internet operations to a halt.
But for now, consider that when Ofcom was formed, by merging several regulators, it was thought the internet would be a big area for it to police. In fact, it is too big an area - certainly for any national body, almost certainly for most international bodies.
Fortunately - and here is where Ofcom must be relieved - rather than wait for politicians to push through knee-jerk, predictably poor legislation to crack a proverbial nut with a sledgehammer, those associated with the internet, as suppliers and end users, have taken measures themselves to make sure it still works.
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1. anonymous
Ofcom is to be congratulated on an excellent piece of research, but not just as you say in your own leader, to stop politicians charging ahead in knee-jerk response to the latest internet "scandal".
More important is that the research is a great piece of ammunition against the EC's draft TWF directive, which implicitly would involve regulation of the internet. Self Regulation is a far more effective tool for an industry which is changing faster than the EC regulators can get their heads around it.
[Ed note: Warning against the EC directive was also part of the Ofcom report, though we didn't get around to that in our article.]