Legal Research

Internet Traffic enquiry

By scott

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Communications (apComms) has launched an inquiry into Internet traffic to assess whether the current regulation of ISPs and a range of Internet traffic issues from behavioural advertising and privacy to child abuse images and Internet neutrality is still fit for purpose, and if not whether government and/or further legislative action is needed.

Whilst all views on the topic are welcome the committee are particularly keen on views on the following 5 key questions:

1. Can we distinguish circumstances when ISPs should be forced to act to deal with some type of bad traffic? When should we insist that ISPs should not be forced into dealing with a problem, and that the solution must be found elsewhere?

2. Should the Government be intervening over behavioural advertising services, either to encourage or discourage their deployment; or is this entirely a matter for individual users, ISPs and websites?

3. Is there a need for new initiatives to deal with online privacy, and if so, what should be done?

4. Is the current global approach to dealing with child sexual abuse images working effectively? If not, then how should it be improved?

5. Who should be paying for the transmission of Internet traffic? Would it be appropriate to enshrine any of the various notions of Network Neutrality in statute?

Submissions and any other enquiries - by 22 May - should be sent to: admin@apcomms.org.uk

Full post as published by Information Overload on April 22, 2009 (boomark / email).