This article will discuss two different issues: the regulation of potentially harmful content such as pornography on the Internet and regulation of invariably illegal content such as child pornography. These issues are different in nature and should not be confused. Any regulatory action intended to protect a certain group of people, such as children, should not take the form of an unconditional prohibition of using the Internet to distribute certain content that is freely available to adults in other media.
The article examines the various attempts to regulate illegal and harmful content on the Internet and supports the view that a 'multi-layered' governance for the regulation of illegal and harmful content on the Internet would be a better approach. While explaining the 'governance' approach the article tries to identify the difficulties and the rationale behind the various levels such as legislation, self-regulation, and technical solutions.
Before examining the United Kingdom legal situation surrounding the availability of 'pornographic content' on the Internet, this article explains how and in which ways these materials are available on the Internet.