Internet Regulation: The Next Frontier?

As we begin to realise just how profoundly online misconduct is impacting society, calls are growing for the internet to be brought under real-world controls. There is, at the same time, a growing consensus that part of the answer at least, is regulation. Earlier this month, the House of Lords announced an inquiry into whether internet regulation "should be improved". This adds to an ongoing Parliamentary inquiry into fake news, as well as new, threatened legislation to deal with the impact of social media on children. But what exactly do we mean by regulation, what measures are workable, and what protections already exist?

There is no single or specific regulator for the internet; no supra-national 'online law'. The whole issue is a jurisdictional conundrum. In the UK, we have a patchwork of statutory and non-governmental organisations that regulate behaviour associated with the internet. The Information Commissioner's Office, for example, oversees data