ApComms
, the all-party parliamentary group on communications, has launched
aninquiry
into internet traffic issuesto assess the
regulation of internet service providers (ISPs).
The committee, chaired by MPs John Robertson and Derek Wyatt,
aims to determine what role government should play in regulating
Internet traffic and internet-based transactions.
The topics it wants feedback on are the circumstances in which
ISPs should be forced to act over content, behavioural advertising,
privacy, child abuse images and internet neutrality.
It is seeking written answers to five questions by 22 May, and
will take oral evidence in June with a final report due in
autumn.
The five questions are:
- Can we distinguish circumstances when ISPs should be forced to
act to deal with some type of bad traffic? When should we insist
that ISPs should not be forced into dealing with a problem, and
that the solution must be found elsewhere?
- Should the government be intervening over behavioural
advertising services, either to encourage or discourage their
deployment; or is this entirely a matter for individual users, ISPs
and websites?
- Is there a need for new initiatives to deal with online
privacy, and if so, what should be done?
- Is the current global approach to dealing with child sexual
abuse images working effectively? If not, then how should it be
improved?
- Who should be paying for the transmission of internet traffic?
Would it be appropriate to enshrine any of the various notions of
network neutrality in statute?
Submissions and any other enquiries should be sent to:
admin@apcomms.org.uk
