Internet stakeholders ponder ways to regulate the web

UK Internet Governance Forum meets in London ahead of international conference later this year

Parliamentarians, business leaders and other internet stakeholders met today at a UK Internet Governance Forum event in London to consider the most appropriate mechanisms for safeguarding the web.

The UK IGF was conceived last year as a means of bringing together industry, government, parliament and civil society in order to share ideas and formulate examples of UK best practice in online governance, ahead of the international Internet Governance Forum in Hyderabad in December.

At the UK IGF, stakeholders discussed issues including security, accessibility, online crime reduction and diversity. Chair, Alun Michael MP argued that governments can't legislate for internet-related issues because of the rapid rate of change, and instead should look to national fora like the UK IGF to take a multi-stakeholder, collaborative and consensual approach to internet governance.

"People started off by saying 'the internet is too fast, too global, too universal and too technical; let's leave it to someone else'," he explained. " But the fact is if you leave it to someone else the chances are that it'll go wrong and the bad guys will take over … leaving it to the institutions doesn't work either."

At the event .uk registry Nominet confirmed the winners of its Best Practice Awards which will be showwcased in Hyderabad as examples of the most innovative UK responses to various internet-related challenges.

Awareness campaign Get Safe Online won the Personal Safety Online category, while Barclays was judged to have the Best Security Initiative, with its PINsentry two-factor authenticaton device.