Is paternalism always wrong? When can it be right? Wil Howard providing something like net nanny to families free of charge be an election winner?

The net nanny thing is a good idea, as a piece of software is cheap to distribute. I hope he will not mail it out, but will instead just invite people to download it. It even makes sense from an economic perspective for something like that to be done on a collective basis.

Just so long as it doesn't block OzPolitic  ;)

Don't you think that parents can decide for themselves about net nanny or whatever it is? Is he going to legislate that it has to be used?

As far as I know it will be voluntary and applied at the user end. He won't be trying what some countries like China do - blocking entire websites from getting into the country at the server level.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Call-to-tackle-cyber-Wild-West/2007/08/10/1186530591233.html

Internet companies, retailers and government must do far more to protect people from the dangers of the "lawless Wild West" of cyberspace, an influential group of British MPs says.

In a critical report, the MPs said the British government and industry have a "laissez-faire" approach to online crime that could lead to an "economically disastrous" loss of public confidence in the internet.

With computer fraud growing more sophisticated, people have little hope of protecting themselves alone, the House of Lords' Science and Technology Committee said.

"You can't just rely on individuals to take responsibility for their own security," said committee chairman Lord Broers.