Confederation of European Computer User Associations

CECUA Euro-news flash

Who needs a watchdog?

On the 5th October, the French Government launched a two month consultative process for establishing rules for using the Internet in France. This consultative process involving companies, lawyers and "others" will cover issues such as transaction protection and competition, broadening Internet access and parental control of children's access. The aim is to present a bill in December.

CECUA supports this initiative because it is widening the debate on fundamental issues affecting the Citizen.

Indeed the proposals cover some of the issues already identified by CECUA as key issues for European Citizens today, and has published its draft Bill of Rights for Citizens in the Global Information Society (www.CECUA.org ). CECUA is also a partner in the INCORE project (the European Commission Internet Contents Rating for Europe initiative - see www.INCORE.org ) which is part of a global initiative to enable parents to control access by children to the Internet.

However, CECUA also believes that the use of legislation is not going to be effective and has chosen to promote the use of a Bill of Rights which can be very general and embodies principles rather than specific measures. Legislation on the other hand, tends to be much more specific and technical with the result that it rapidly out of date and irrelevant because technology is changing so rapidly.

The other complication is that legislation is currently restricted to limited geographical areas. The Internet is global and does not recognise national or regional boundaries. And while governments recognise national boundaries, criminals and in some case business do not! International legislation can be enacted but it is a very lengthy process and usually very general. However, there are success stories at the International level in the area of Human Rights, and a Bill of Rights for Citizens in the Global Information Society falls neatly into this category.

The weakness of legislation, particularly at the International level, has been recognised for a very long time. This why organisations such as the United Nations and Amnesty International have such a fundamental role in the monitoring and policing of Human Rights at the Global level. CECUA is now calling for International activity in the Global Information Society. This "society" is just as real as one that we live in. It has its benefactors, it has its criminals, it has its traders, it has its politicians. In fact it has everything that our local society has with this big difference - it is far easier to hide detection in this society. It presents wonderful opportunities for commerce, it provides wonderful opportunities for forming world-wide communities and it also presents world-wide opportunities for criminals of all kinds - and the trouble with an "electronic" crime is that it can leave very few traces of its activity.

It however, is not such good news for governments and its citizens. Since the Global Information Society crosses national boundaries with little or no control, the ability of governments to protect its interests or the interests of its citizens is very limited. Governments are attempting to control what happens within their own boundaries - China has a very restrictive policy on its own citizen's use of the Internet. However, in CECUA's opinion this is not the way forward and is bound to fail in the medium term.

In order that the Internet can remain an open and positive force for democracy, there must be rules of behaviour and conduct. These rules have to be International since the Internet is Global. These have to be enforceable both nationally and internationally. This is the difficulty. It is very difficult to get consensus on International laws, and this takes a lot of diplomatic effort and takes a long time. However, there has been far more success in getting consensus on Human Rights at an International level - and this is why CECUA believes that the way forward is by defining rights rather than promoting International legislation.

CECUA does support this initiative and is very happy to contribute to them, but does caution that the Internet is global phenomenon and any initiative at a national level must accommodate the international nature of the issues so that it does not enact out of date legislation which inhibits the development of the Information Society for their citizens.

There is an on-going discussion about the Bill of Rights is on the web. All citizens are invited to participate and comment and exchange views with fellow citizens. The address is: www.cecua.org Participate and help us to bring the message home. Or if you have a better idea how to contain Internet spying please let us know, send us an e-mail and we will be delighted.