Well today seems to be quite a day for the internet!
Firstly, it is “Safer Internet Day”. Having kids myself, I’m pleased to see the dangers of the internet being highlighted.
There was a half-decent article from the BBC raising awareness of the risks of younger children using smart-phones. Seems obvious to me, but it clearly isn’t that obvious to most people – according to the BBC article only 1 in 10 parents fully appreciate the risks!
However, we are increasingly concerned about threats to Net Neutrality. This is one of the founding principles of the internet, and probably the main reason for its success, yet sadly it appears to be coming to the end! The big media companies are taking over, and using some pretty underhand methods to do so. For example, lobbying the UK government to legislate internet filtering under the pretext that it will “protect our children”. I won’t labour on the details here, but basically this is some pretty scary trojan-horse legislation being pushed through, for all the wrong reasons, and it will bring about the end of the internet as we know it. If you’re happy getting all your content from BT and Sky, you’ll be fine, but all the small independent companies and individuals are going to suffer.
And then there is the question of privacy. It’s great to see Edward Snowden exposing the antics of the NSA, GCHQ et al, but it is not going to stop.
So today is also The Day We Fight Back
Nice to see it is https 🙂