Interim Digital Britain report will be published today
Lord Carter, Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting, is later this morning publishing his interim report on Government plans to boost the digital and communications industries.
The full report is due out later this spring, probably June, and is expected to address a number of different areas, including broadband development, public service broadcasting and digital radio: it is likely to set minimum broadband speeds and urge providers to give Britain universal coverage by 2012. The report is also expected to examine ways of combating digital piracy : the illegal sharing of movies, music and TV.
It is also hoped that the report will tackle the thorny issue of how to protect children on the internet, with millions of under 18's visiting social networking sites and playing MMOGs.
Tamara Littleton, CEO of eModeration, says: “We need clear guidelines that set out consistent content standards to protect Internet users, particularly children, from content that is illegal or unsuitable. Some great work has been done by people like the Internet Watch Foundation and the Home Office to help safeguard children, and the IAB on developing best practice guidelines. All these provide good solid foundations for content on the web.
“What we need to do now it to bring all the various standards together to create a single set of content guidelines that are clear to anyone publishing content online.
“We also need clarity on who is responsible for what, online. If we are to set standards, we need lines of responsibility between ISPs, media owners, individual content publishers, advertisers, and so on.
“The industry has worked hard to protect users, particularly children, and to educate people about the risks online. Now it's time to widen the focus and provide clarity to content creators on the rules and boundaries.”
Update to original post: See Tamara's comment on the Digital Britain report on 11th Feb 2009 in the UK Financial Times
For more information, visit:
NetImperative
BBC News
Mobile Today
Sky News
