Hanna Comaneshter PhD Candidate Supervisor: Dr. David Levi-Faur

1. The Regulation of Internet Content in the age of Globalization: State-, Self- and Co-Regulation Strategies כנס דוקטורנטים חוקרי אינטרנט מכון נטוויז'ן לחקר האינטרנט23 במרץ 2006 Hanna Comaneshter PhD Candidate Supervisor: Dr. David Levi-Faur Political Sciences School – University of Haifa

2. Research Question: What are the Regulatory Strategies for the Governance of Contested Content in the Internet? What is Contested Content & what are the risks? Contested content refers to content in dispute. This content can be defined as either: illegal, harmful or offensive.

3. Risk Assessment Children might be exposed to content that is beyond their intellectual and moral capabilities to analyse and may be considered harmful or anti-social Crime Violence Sex Personal Details Inappropriate Speech

4. Risk Assessment ‘Risk regulation… seeks to reduce personal and environmental injuries before they occur by addressing the potential causes of such injuries, that is, the risk of such injuries’ (Shapiro and Gliksman, 2003:1). ‘Risk as the probabilitythat a particular adverse event will occur during a stated period of time or result from a particular challenge’ (Baldwin, 1997:2). Predictable V. unpredictable (Baldwin, 1997:2) Scientifically assessed V. subjectively estimated Public V. some individuals choosing to be exposed to them

5. Four Main Issues to Consider: • Should we try to regulate cyberspace and new delivering techniques at all? • Are there efficient regulatory tools? • Can we find a tool of global nature (global consent) ? • Who will be liable/ responsible ? • What are the risks?

6. Regulatory Challenges • Content is distributed to the general public • Uncertain Research Findingof Affects • (Gunter and McAleer, 1997: 92) • A number of Cyberspaces (Cannataci & Misfud, 2003). • Abundance of content and the need to categorize • Whose responsibility? ISP’S, Portals, Cable Operators • Regulation strategies is affected by the globalization • since content can be received from outside national • borders(Gibbons, 1998: 15).

7. Regulatory Techniques • Technical fixed limitations • Filters (Spinello, 2001) • Zoning architecture (Lessig,1999) • Block sights(Grabosky and Smith, 1998) • User empowerment • Community recommendation

8. Voluntary Regulation -ISP is deciding to undertake certain measures in order to create a safer environment for its users(e.g. InternetNZ , New Zealand) Increase the sense of security and confidence of users The criteria are not necessarily transparent Commitment?

9. Self Regulation - A guild of ISP's or an industry organization of ISP's can decide to set mutual standards. (e.g. IWF, UK ) Mutual standards in order to create common criteria High level of commitment and cooperation Transparency Dominant player to exclude new players and maintain their power position

10. Co-Regulation - both industry and state (or public bodies) are working jointly to set the standards and enforce them (e.g. Australian ACMA & IIA). Joint standards & enforcement Joint responsibility & accountability Balance between public and private interests? Freedom of expression

11. Future Research Different regulatory approaches require different regulatory techniques? Different regulatory regimes lead to different regulatory approaches? Different perceptions of risks lead to different regulatory approaches?

12. Thank you for your attention Hanna Comaneshter hcomanes@study.haifa.ac.il