Leader: Childish government of the internet

The UK government, no stranger to naïve pronouncements where the internet is concerned, has decided it is going to make the UK the safest country on the internet.

Putting aside the fact that this initiative totally negates the notion of the internet being a global network with no awareness of national boundaries, it also begs the question: "And just how do you intend to do that then?"

A publicity campaign will kick off next month and will consist of radio and internet ads aimed at warning kids about the dangers online. Groundbreaking.

A Home Office spokesman said many children are aware of the dangers and this campaign is aimed at refreshing that awareness - in case they've forgotten or lapsed back into less safe surfing habits.

Judging by separate findings from the LSE, the message hasn't sunk in entirely - evidenced by the fact half of all children have provided some element of information (for example, name, age, address, email address or phone number) to someone they met on the internet.

But in reality the messages have been out there for long enough and we've seen plenty of publicity campaigns to the above effect. Is it not time the government started to explore new avenues rather than once more ride through the streets of suburbia on their publicity bandwagon?

Better education of parents - still the weakest link in this particular chain - would be a start and would make it far easier to implement schemes to bundle filtering tools with family PC packages. Many parents hand their children the box and that's the last they see of the PC.

It's a tired, but relevant comparison that parents need to obtain a licence before they can give their child a dog, but a PC and the dangers it presents, used in ignorance or through childish curiosity, can be obtained with little more paperwork than a 'buy now pay later' credit agreement or the obligatory warrantee.

On that note retailers should also take notice. If more sales staff spent more time warning parents about the threats posed by their new PC and less time trying to doubletalk them into lengthy warrantees and credit agreements, parents might leave the shop with a clearer idea of the risks. What about an insistence upon 'best practice' safety demonstrations and instructions on the part of sales staff and the sale of PCs as goods sold under licence? If mystery shoppers catch out a major high street retailer selling PCs without 'the talk' and the correct instruction then they lose their licence. Watch the staff become more conscientious.

These are all just simple suggestions and far from a panacea but it moves the thinking beyond: "I know, what about another publicity campaign?"

Slightly tangential, but there was yet another sign this week that the government isn't equipping itself most effectively to address such issues. Love him, hate him, or simply find him a little odd, Stephen Timms has always been a campaigner on many 'e'-issues and one of very few politicians who gave the impression he understood the internet and the part it plays in society.

So what does the government do? It gives him a job gathering dust in the Treasury.

Did we say naïve at the beginning of this? Perhaps stupid is a better word for it.