Before they all packed up for their summer holidays our MPs began discussing ways to clamp down on the sorts of unsavoury material we can view on the internet, writes blogger Dan Wainwright.
When it comes to the types of appalling images children might be able to see there is good reason to support such a move, even if, like me, you are an ardent supporter of freedom of expression.
And when I say appalling images I’m not just on about that picture of me grinning like an idiot next to Timmy Mallett when he visited Atlantis in Wolverhampton three years ago.
But talk about shutting the gate after the horse has bolted.
For years now the internet has been a wild beast, growing in size and ferocity with each day, as free as an eagle and as dangerous as a cobra.
To try to reign it in would take a degree of command and control not seen on this planet since Alexander the Great ran out of countries to conquer.
No statutory or even voluntary body exists to regulate the likes of Facebook, MySpace and Bebo.
The culture select committee is doing the typical Government thing of asking these private companies to work together, rather than making any unpopular decisions for itself.
In doing so it is trying to tame the net tiger by asking it if it wouldn’t mind politely putting on a chain and whipping itself.
The committee wants material deemed offensive removed immediately, rather than within the apparent standard 24 hours, and for material to be quarantined by staff who view it before approving it.
It will be impossible to get the industry to support this. Why, when they are getting 10 hours worth of material on YouTube every minute, would they want to dumb down their service?
When we have all come to expect, no demand, the ability to instantly view the photos of our colleagues in Malaga while they are still there thanks to the instant blog feeds on their mobile phones, we would never accept something going back to the way things used to be, when we actually had to wait for stuff.
Do you remember those days? Going to Supa Snaps and collecting your pictures hoping you didn’t have your eyes shut or your thumb over the lens?
No, the industry is never going to agree to limit its service, why should it without incentive or legislation?
Likewise the Government is never going to take action and put forward a bill forcing regulation of the internet.
Because it’s not just the net that is a wild, feral beast that would rip the Government’s head off for poking it with a stick. The internet has already eaten us and we are part of it.
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