To think the internet should be a little more controlled...

[jobhunter7]

It shouldn't be possible to access hardcore pornography so easily...
It shouldn't be so easy to troll people...
There should be more controls before things go live to the entire universe...

And how exactly would you propose this work without globally organised censorship? Just because e.g. the UK decides certain websites are bad doesn't mean South Africa or France does.

Who decides what's OK and what's not? On what grounds?

Are you proposing state-controlled access to media in the style of China and North Korea where our consumption of information is strictly controlled and monitored.

I suspect you haven't given this much thought at all really.

The problem is, do you really want Boris Johnson and his cronies deciding what is and is not acceptable internet content?

@jobhunter7

It shouldn't be possible to access hardcore pornography so easily... It shouldn't be so easy to troll people... There should be more controls before things go live to the entire universe...

Yes.

And illegal drugs should be made illegal.

Who decides what is & isn't offensive or to be controlled?

Echoing others here on the 'by who'? The internet is a global beast, and cultures and norms differ so much around the world Even within the same culture, what one person considers perfectly acceptable is utterly reprehensible to another.
Also, who would do the 'punishing' for rulebreaking, under which country's laws, and how?
There are plenty of options for internet filtering for an individual who is concerned.

Yes, someone at Internet HQ should tick the ‘Don’t say or look at naughty things’ box. Then everything will be fine.

I use the internet. I have never accessed hardcore porn. I have never trolled or been trolled. I have never 'accidentally' gone live.
The internet is what you want it to be. It's pretty amazing really..

Even if there were standards and a way of enforcing them, it would need huge numbers of people to monitor it or monitor the bots that did the monitoring.

Like in China?

How do you suggest that is achieved? There's so much techy stuff out there that gets round blocks and disguises this that and the other. Even China's great firewall is get roundable.

How is it decided what is and is not offensive? A committee? Extremely specific rules or relying on individual judgement?

Also, the authorities are fighting a losing battle against images and videos of child abuse, against human trafficking, against drug sales etc. Do we really expect them to give a shit that melvile282 called smokeyshakes62 a cow on Reddit?

It's really near impossible to ban these thing's, even if they're made illegal. Sexual abusers will always fund a way of doing so, and as for trolling you only have to look at AIBU to see how easy it is.

Trolling isn't just 'look how mean I can be on the internet', it's full of normal bored people seeing how many idiots they can draw into a story. I mean right now on here, many are falling for begging and 'wow, what a story' type trolling and they don't even seem to catch on how easily they're taken in by utter bollocks. How can you police that, even if posters manage to scam others out of white goods, food, money - how can you argue you're a victim over having no fucking common sense on the internet?

It's not possible without ending up with some dystopian censorship and control of information. Unfortunately, with the internet you have to take the bad with the good.

YABVU. We can’t go around censoring everything.

Who decides what’s offensive? Everything’s offensive to someone.

Free speech is important. The issue isn’t people trolling, it’s people not being resilient enough to cope with it and trying to make it other people’s problem.

As long as the hardcore pornography isn’t illegal material, it’s your job as a parent to stop your children accessing it. It’s not up to anyone else, especially the government, to police.

And who is going to rule on what's acceptable and what is not? How are you going to police this globally?

Controlled by who?

The "internet" is not a thing in itself, it's a mess of computers and servers owned and located across the globe, it's you and me and anyone who uses "it".

Other posters are quite right to ask by whom? And how. Part of the power pc this thing that has grown over the past 25 years is that it's not controlled of controllable. Unless you live in repressive societies.

If you can tell me where the internet is and who is in charge then lets start working on that.

With things like trolling, while despicable, who is to say what is or isn’t trolling? Who is going to check?

@Carolina24

The problem is, do you really want Boris Johnson and his cronies deciding what is and is not acceptable internet content?

It's already happening, Theresa May's government instructed ISP's to block over 2500 websites (yet still allow access to the dark web, hardcore pornography and tools to enable rigorous tracking) with more to come (I believe another 2700+ at last count) in late '21 (I believe it will slip to '22).

I used to work with seniority in the industry and have friends/former colleagues involved. It's not going to get any better under any government and yet they are content to skip over the low hanging fruit that is reprehensible and morally/ethically corrupt.

Bypassing these blocks is simple with a google search regardless. There's also apps for every device available for download in the relevant appstore too.

Morals and ethics are a personal choice. I'd love certain content blocked properly but YMWV.

Do we really expect them to give a shit that melvile282 called smokeyshakes62 a cow on Reddit?

Of course... but it's a bit more different when real people are involved...

It's already happening, Theresa May's government instructed ISP's to block over 2500 websites

Wasn't she going introduce an age verification system that you had prove you were 18 before you could view any blue material online...

age verification system

aka a chocolate fireguard...

An internet designed in a completely different way could do what OP wants. Maybe that will happen soon.

>Do we really expect them to give a shit that melvile282 called smokeyshakes62 a cow on Reddit?

Of course... but it's a bit more different when real people are involved...

You know that Reddit users, like Mumsnet users and Twitter users are all real people?

You can create an almost infinite number of identities on these websites.