Don't mess with the net. (Regulation).

The Internet is very difficult to control. Data are sent around the Net in small packets, each of which can take a different route. The flow of information is hard to stop, even if much of the network is destroyed. A favourite motto is "The Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it."

Because the Internet has grown so rapidly, governments have been slow to regulate its use and to pass laws regarding what content is acceptable. Many Internet users also see such laws as an infringement of their right to free speech. In 1996, the Congress of the United States passed the Communications Decency Act, which made it a crime to transmit indecent material over the Internet. This decision resulted in an immediate outcry from users, industry

experts, and civil liberties groups opposed to such censorship.

In 1997, the United States Supreme Court declared the act unconstitutional because it violated First Amendment rights to free speech. Lawmakers responded in 1998 by passing a narrower anti-pornography bill, the Child Online Protection Act. This law required commercial WWW sites to ensure that children could not access material deemed "harmful to minors." In 1999, that bill was shot down in flames when a federal judge blocked it as well, ruling that it too would dangerously restrict constitutionally protected free speech.

As it stands at the time of writing, there is no Canadian policy on regulating the Internet.

But governments, if not quick to act can be persistent. Slowly, more and more regulations are being imposed on the Net's free-swinging ways. In Britain, the police have been given broad powers to look at e-mail. The government of South Korea has outlawed access to online gambling. France has demanded that Yahoo! block out sites where enthusiasts buy and sell Nazi memorabilia. Many countries, including Canada, are now investigating and prosecuting people who trade in child pornography over the Web.

Software filters are available that can keep the most offensive material from curious eyes and ears. This can be installed at a variety of places along the network: at gateways that link one country with the rest of the online world; at an Internet service provider's equipment; or, at the individual user's computer. Users can also be tracked through their "IP address," the number that identifies individual computers on the Internet. In this way, users can be blocked from certain Websites.

But, there are also technologies to get around IP-address trackers and filters. So, regulation and censorship are imperfect tools at best. As each new roadblock is erected on the information superhighway, users almost immediately find a way around it.

Websites

The Internet Society http://www.isoc.org/

Yahooligans (Kid-safe search engine) http://www.yahooligans.com/