John Naughton (2000) of the Observer reports on the recent British Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act and how it will impact on society. He explains that this Act enables the Police and Security Services to intercept and monitor e-mail and Internet use, without any hindrance in relation to the Data Protection Act.
Some of the issues of this Act he explores further. Every United Kingdom's Internet Service Provider (ISP) are required to install technology that will be able to monitor traffic through computer use and then they are required to pass the information to the GTAC, the Government Technical Assistance Centre of MI5. Although a warrant will be required in order to read the information contained within specific data files, information will still be recorded. A record of access to websites visited, information downloaded from the Internet, discussion groups and chat rooms entered, and details of addresses of e-mail correspondence, will all be accessible enabling extraction of Internet activity without actually reading the data.
In comparison, an article by Jason Bennetto (2001), a Crime Correspondent for the Independent, refers to the use of the internet providing protection. He explains that 'Paedophile-free' Internet chat rooms are to be created following evidence that the targeting of the one million British youngsters who use chat rooms is increasing.
He identifies that a study conducted by the Police and the Home Office revealed that five million children under the age of sixteen in the UK used the Internet. He reports that this study also revealed that 1.15 million children participated in the use of approximately 100,000 chat rooms worldwide. It is also reported that detectives were shocked at the volume of children using chat rooms.
He further reports that the Internet Crime Forum which includes representative from the Home Office, the Association of Chief Police Officers, child welfare groups and Internet companies, recommend the establishment of protected children-only chat rooms. Personnel trained in the detection of inappropriate or sexually explicit language, and the detection of attempts by adults to contact children would monitor the chat rooms. Any investigations into suspected paedophile activity would be co-ordinated by the high tech National Crime Unit. It is further reported that any chat rooms protected by these measures will have "kitemarks" or badges of excellence displayed.
Access and Inequality
However, access to the wealth of information via the Internet is not accessible to a large proportion of the global population. An article by Neil McIntosh (1999) reports that an information underclass is developing. He identifies that one of the reasons for this inequality is that 80% of the information published on the Internet is in English, and yet "English is spoken by less than a 10th of the world's population".
In addition, he also explores the relationship between an individual's income and their ability to access the Internet. For example, a personal computer within the United States costs approximately an individual's monthly salary, however, in Bangladesh the cost of the same personal computer would equate to eight years average income.
He also identifies that inequality exists within a country and that a survey conducted by a United States department of commerce revealed that those specific groups, such as ethnic minorities and the poor, were being left behind in the access to information. This survey reported that within the United States 62% of urban households with an income of over $75,000 had Internet access, and that only 2.9% of the poorer urban households were connected.
Furthermore, an article by Charlotte Denny (2000) discusses the impact inequality of Internet access is having globally with regard to education, particularly between the west and the developing worlds. She reports that in the past the resources utilised within educational environments were measured in terms of teachers, textbooks, blackboards and desks etc. However, these basic resources were now being replaced with the technology of computers within classrooms of the western world and as the spread of computer use widens, the divide of knowledge widens between the west and the developing world.
This article identifies that a United Nations human development report discusses a new divide, a digital divide, between the poor and richer countries. It also identifies that the Internet is the fastest growing form of communication in the western world and that this issue is a factor in the widening divide of knowledge between the rich and the poor.
She further reports that the former "United States President, Bill Clinton, pledged that every American classroom would be connected to the Internet by the end of the year 2000". Even though at the time America already had more computers than the remainder of the world put together. And at a conference in Florence in 1999, Mr Clinton suggested that technology could be a way of reducing the global inequality.
She also reports that Mr Clinton agrees with the United Nations that global inequality is reinforced by the technological differences between developed and developing worlds and that his solution was for the developing worlds to become connected to the Internet.
She highlights that access to the Internet in developing areas is not an easy or quick solution, and that those advocates of the Internet seem to have ignored the scale of the challenge that would be presented to these undeveloped countries in order to become connected to the Internet.
She explains that access requires a telephone connection and that in Bangladesh for example, there is less than three telephone lines for every one thousand people and in Afghanistan the ratio is even less, one in every one thousand people. For those undeveloped countries which do have Internet access the level is extremely low. In South Asia, home to 23% of the world's population, they have less than 1% of the world's Internet users. In Africa there are only seven Internet hosts for every one million people and that 40% of people within developing countries have never made a telephone call.
Charlotte Denny also highlights that a telephone connection is not the only factor restricting Internet access, she comments that there is no point in pursuing Internet connection when classrooms within countries like Africa have no roofs, or even electricity.
In conclusion the issues presented in this essay confirm that perceptions and views of individuals vary enormously with regard to the utilisation of computer technology. Computer technology can have an impact in some form on every individual, irrespective of their wealth, status, age or location throughout the world.
REFERENCES
BENNETTO, J. (2001) 'Paedophile–free' chatrooms for children planned after abuse cases (Online). Independent Digital (UK) Ltd. Available from:
(Accessed 8 December 2001).
DENNY, S. (2000) Internet promises salvation – or an even bigger knowledge gap (Online). Guardian Newspapers Limited. Available from:
(Accessed 8 December 2001).
MCINTOSH, N. (1999) The new poor (Online). Guardian Newspapers Limited. Available from:
(Accessed 8 December 2001).
NAUGHTON, J. (2000) Your privacy ends here (Online). Guardian Newspapers Limited. Available from:
(Accessed 8 December 2001).
SHAPIRO, A. L. (1997) Privacy for Sale: Peddling Data on the Internet (Online). The Nation Company, L. P. Available from:
(Accessed 8 December 2001).
STAIR, R. M and REYNOLDS, G. W. (2001) Principles of Information Systems, 5th ed. Boston: International Thomson Publishing, p.565.
Andrew L Shapiro, a Nation contributing editor and fellow at the Twentieth Century Fund, is writing a book for the fund on the politics of new media.