The internet is the fastest growing and largest tool for mass communication and information distribution in the world. It can be used to distribute large amounts of information anywhere in the world at a minimal cost. In the last ten years there has been increasing concern about damaging internet content from violence and sexual content to bomb-making instructions, terrorist activity and child pornography. Even if moral arguments surrounding internet censorship can be justified there remain practical problems with the regulation of such an international concept.

Despite the generally prevailing principle of freedom of speech in democratic countries, it is widely accepted that certain types of speech are not given protection as they are deemed to be of insufficient value compared to the harm, they cause. Child pornography in the print or broadcast media for instance is never tolerated. The internet should be no exception to these basic standards. Truly offensive material such as hardcore pornography and extreme racial hatred are no different simply because they are published on the world wide web as opposed to a book or video.

Censorship is tailored to the power of the medium. Accordingly there is a higher level of censorship attached to television, films and video than to newspapers and books. this is because we recognise that moving pictures and sound are more graphic and powerful then text and photographs or illustrations. There is also normally more regulation of videos than cinema films because the viewer of a video is a captive audience with the power to rewind, view again and distribute more widely. The internet, which has become a huge repository of video and sound (for example, the speeches from hiding of Osama Bin Laden) should be attached the same level of power and regulated accordingly.

That it is hard to censor the internet does not mean we should not seek to do so, it is extremely difficult already to prevent the sale of snuff movies or hard core pornography but governments do so because it is deemed to be of societal importance. A more relevant difficulty is the anonymity provided by the internet which gives pornographers and criminals the opportunity to abuse the medium. But work by regimes such as Saudi Arabia and China have shown that it is possible to exercise considerable control over the internet and its users. Other Asian countries have experimented with requiring citizens to provide identification before posting content on to the internet, such a system if universally adopted could be a relatively simple way of enforcing laws against truly offensive and harmful content.

In many countries there will be multiple liability for production of slanderous material, material which incites racial hatred. Where the author or publisher can not be traced or are insolvent the printers can be sued or prosecuted in some circumstances. The relatively small number of internet service providers (ISPs) should be made liable if they assist in the provision of dangerous and harmful information such as bomb making instructions, hard core pornography etc.