Part of the British government’s plan to censor the internet includes requiring video websites to vet all their content before it’s published.  This, they claim, will protect us from seeing porn and happy slapping and the like.

There is, of course, a pretty simple way of protecting yourself from viewing porn and violence on the internet – don’t look at it.  If a film says “Me an’ my bredren slappin’ jamal” then the chances are it’s not going to be a trailer for Bambi.  If it’s tagged “deep throat” or “hard core” then there is a very good possibility it’s not the kind of video you’d watch with your gran.

The idea of requiring people like YouTube to vet every video submitted to their site will effectively kill off their free service.  The main reason why YouTube has millions of videos and millions of users is because it’s free.  If they have to employ a couple of thousand people to pro-actively vet their content then they will have to start charging for it and that will effectively kill off video websites.

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