This would risk the failure of Europe to gain the full benefits from the provision of Information Society services. It therefore believes that the majority of the principles developed to date for the Internet and other new services will increasingly be relevant and applicable to traditional broadcasting because choice and control of content will be the essence of new services. New services should herald the advent of a lighter and more flexible regulatory regime for new media, precisely because the nature of the services renders the requirement for traditional levels of top down control unnecessary. We are however strongly against making the supply or use of any particular parental control mechanism mandatory. Such a move would negate one of the key benefits of new services - namely the ability to tailor the experience to the moral and cultural requirements of the individual.
New services offer choice and control in respect of content.
Indeed they offer choice of control, as there will increasingly be numerous options and combinations of options for such control. The main browsers are now PICS compatible and users can configure their browser to receive only PICS rated content, specifying the levels of sex and violence, for example, which they will tolerate. Clearly there are a number of important prerequisites if such a system is to be truly effective. A Co-operative Approach There is therefore a need for collaboration and the sharing of experiences between the broadcasting and new services industries. Indeed, this is mirrored in the UK work addressing many of the same issues in the Internet context which is being undertaken by The Internet Watch Foundation, an industry funded organisation in the UK set up by the industry to attempting to deal with illegal and harmful Internet content.