The Public Sector and Content Regulation: Focussing on Pornography and Child Sexual Abuse Material

Abstract

Who decides what is normal and abnormal content? How is this process of regulating Internet content normalised? Restrictions of certain types of Internet content can only be understood in their specific historical context, as an evolution of regulatory practices and Internet technologies. That some types of Internet content are regulated and not others is not a technical or economic necessity. In order to study this phenomenon this chapter looks at public sector governance of Internet content in the UK, Germany and the US with a focus on pornography and child sexual abuse material. In conclusion it argues that answering that the regulation of Internet content is heavily dependent on state capacity to induce self-regulatory regimes on the private sector.