Julian Pletts says:

Paddle free as you surf the web

Events such as the protests surrounding the Iranian election and Google’s tustle with the Chinese govern- have demonstrated how impor-tant it is that the internet is open to all and just how tense an issue the fight for that freedom can be.

Bloggers around the world, including in Iran and China, manage to bypass oppressive internet censors and tell of hidden atrocities and hardships that would otherwise happen without a single voice raised in protest.

A real human rights home run.

This is the most extreme reason why the internet should be an unrestricted platform and probably the most compelling. But think about your life.

How many times have you thought ‘I will just Google that’, kept up with friends on facebook or even read news on your local newspaper’s web site?

How would you feel if you were stripped of those freedoms?

Now, that’s not to say dangers on the vast expanse that is the web, such as money-grabbing hackers and even nastier paedophiles, are not significant. They are.

But these are good reasons why people need to learn how to protect themselves online.

The dangers are not a good enough reason to infringe on people’s right to free and uncen-sored information.

You could get run over crossing the road. That doesn’t mean you should never leave the flat.

Well the same goes for the inter-net. It should be open to all.

Brid-Aine Conway says:

No rules means no consequences

In a perfect world, we could all play nice together, share the toys unselfishly, never take advantage of each other and no-one would ever get hurt.

It’s not really a shock to anyone that this is not a perfect world.

Give everyone freedom of inform-ation and the most incredible leap forward in communication since Alexander Graham Bell picked up a huge black device and said “Mr Watson, come here, I want to see you,” and what do you get?

You do get blogs from media-restricted countries, amazing innovations and the free flow of information. But mostly you get crime, deception and the corruption of intellectual property rights.

Cyber-crime is spiralling out of control, costing billions and far more sophisticated than the myriad of specialists trying to stop it (crime does pay - and a lot better than law enforcement or internet security - so that’s where the talent’s going).

Apart from the bullying on social networking sites that famously led to a suicide in the US or the cruel and terrible things seen on Youtube such as Italian teenagers beating an autistic child, a completely free internet is a serious concern to parents because of its use by paedophiles to lure children and its abundant access to adult content.

And even if you don’t want to think of the children, there’s the constant abuse of intellectual property rights in the form of illegal downloads.

There’s no such thing as complete freedom, not in any society in the world right now. It’s not a perfect world, and it’s not a perfect web.