By Carol Hodgins

April 1998

Regulation of the Internet is a hot issue today, as governments around the world struggle to find an approach that will protect their citizens from the unwholesome parts of the net while also safeguarding the people's right to free speech. Any legislation that domestic governments try to implement will be difficult because of the global nature of the net. It has yet to be determined by anyone what type of medium the Internet is and therefore how the net is to be regulated.

Before the Internet can be regulated there must be a consensus as to whether the Internet is a broadcast medium, like a radio or television and subject to control, or a telecommunications based one, such as the telephone or mail that has greater freedom over content of message. The Internet is unlike any other medium we have had before; it has the attributes of both traditional broadcast and telecommunications media. Because the computer has a monitor on which we send and view documents, many people tend to say that the Internet presents itself as a broadcast medium. One message can be shared on millions of screens; this lends to the opinion that the Internet broadcasts information in much the same way that a television does. But the difference with the Internet is that any receiver of any message has the ability to respond to that message immediately and also be heard by the millions who saw the original message. Opinions from around the globe differ at the moment as to which type of medium the Internet is. Here in Canada, the Broadcast and Telecommunications Acts have very different aims and depending on which way the pendulum ultimately swings the net could have a radically different look and feel in a few years.

If the CRTC were to become the regulating body for the Internet here in Canada then another issue the Bertrand would want to deal with is Canadian content. This is an issue that many countries will be looking into as in the past regulation of the broadcast industry has been used to protect domestic cultural industries. When asked how the CRTC would promote Canadian content on the net Bertrand's answer is to license all of the ISP's in Canada and use the funds for the purpose of promotion. Well this would be great for the Internet Service Providers who are on the brink and are struggling to survive won't it. Besides, some Internet providers are already trying to police their content to comply with Criminal Code provisions on obscenity and hate literature.

Until recently, most Internet publishers have managed to avoid much content regulation but with the possibility of the government stepping in and forcing regulations onto this new medium people are searching for alternatives to government regulation.

In Canada, companies such as Digital Equipment Corporation's AltaVista software group and Net Shepherd, Inc. are attempting to create a meaningful standard for Internet content in order to divert government-enforced regulation of the Internet. . These two companies, along with other leading Internet service providers, cable operators, and site developers, meet to develop a standard based on self-regulation, choice and rating tools.

 In England, with co-operation between business and government, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) was founded in September 1996 to establish a self-regulating board to address the problem of illegal material on the Internet. It is an independent organization that executes the proposals jointly agreed by the British government, the police, the two of the largest service providers in England. The basic objective of IWF is to ensure that the "R3 Safety-Net" agreement is being abided by.

 SITES TO SEE:

BACKGROUND MATERIALS: