Britain is on the verge of a new censorship debate, this time over how to regulate the content of the web.
A communications white paper will be published this autumn which will set the legal framework for delivery of net to every home in Britain within the next four years through the domestic digital television as well as the home computer.
Tony Blair has already said he worries about the kind of information that his three 'very computer-literate' children, Euan, Nicky and Kathryn, can find on the net.
"We try to keep a careful watch on what our children are getting access to on the internet. There are organisations that give advice to people, but it's very difficult if the parents aren't around watching what is going on. There are dangers. In the end I think it is more a matter for parents than for governments. We can do what we can, but it is down to parents," Blair has said.
For a politician this represents a very liberal stance compared with America and Australia where attempts to impose state regulation of the net have criminalised not only porn sites but also those which talk about safe sex and abortion as they curb offensive as well as obscene sites.
The Home Office insists that it is possible to enforce the current obscenity laws and ensure that "what is illegal offline is illegal online". So far ministers have been content to leave it to the British internet industry to develop its own self-regulation through the Internet Watch Foundation - a body similar to the British Board of Film Classification.
The IWF is at the centre of a government-backed effort to make sure that what is illegal is not available through the main servers, such as AOL, Demon, BT internet and the others, and that includes race hate material as well as hardcore porn.
Those who back the development of the rating and filtering systems that are used argue that for the first time it will give each family - rather than the state - the power to decide what kind of material should enter their home. But critics fear that the "wish of the lazy parent to allow unsupervised access to their children will reduce adult browsing to the level of suitability of a five year old." So far American and Australian politicians have not been able to resist the temptation. Will British ministers be any different?
