Premature legislation

    Lack of knowledge has not prevented the cry going up for censorship legislation at any cost. In the US it would seem that the cost can be counted in terms of free speech, and the hurried introduction of the Communications Decency Act as part of a Telecoms Reform bill is indicative of the type of knee-jerk legislation that we should strive to avoid in the UK. The terms of the act are such that sending anything that anyone at any time might find indecent is illegal and punishable by fines of up to a quarter of a million dollars and two years in jail. Sending email to your partner that includes passionate discussion about sex, discussion that would be perfectly legal if carried out verbally or by post all of a sudden becomes a hanging offence. Members of online groups that talk about abortion could now face prosecution. Perhaps it is not surprising to learn that the Christian Coalition was a vocal supporter of the CDA in the States. Can you imagine what might happen if the Mary Whitehouse mob got the same bee in its bonnet and had the power to push for a change in the law here?

    But is a change in the law really necessary? OK, you may well now be crying out for a straitjacket for the poor old loony writing this drivel, but stop and think about it for a moment. Why do we need new laws to apply to the Internet? Don't existing laws serve perfectly well. After all they have already been used on a number of occasions to put paid to the paedophiles who try to ply their vile trade online. Being in possession of obscene material is illegal no matter what the format and dirty pictures on your computer are just as illegal as their counterparts on photographs or video tape. Of course, catching someone with Internet pornography is a different matter, but no more difficult than intercepting someone's post to find video tapes. The police still need a suspicion before they can intervene and arrest, and it would be just about impossible for any agency to monitor and decode every online communication taking place. Which, of course, is the main string to the "cannot legislate" bow that I'm plucking. What is the point of introducing a piece of legislation aimed directly at the Internet when just about anyone who knows about such things will tell you it is impossible to enforce?