Taming the dragon: the regulation of Internet business activity

Modern society faces a new and serious challenge: how to react to the rapid growth of business activity in cyberspace. The American response has been to favour a ´hands-off´ approach. This controversial article argues that the stakes are too high for laissez-faire: we should grasp the nettle and impose regulation. Two means of taming the Internet dragon are suggested: legal threat and professional control. The first is for a legislative framework to be established as quickly as possible so that Internet businessmen know that irresponsible behaviour will be penalised by criminal sanction. The second is that the computer-based professionals, who will be the foot soldiers in the forthcoming Internet business wars, should be encouraged, if necessary by a requirement for statutory registration, to join appropriate professional institutions so that they have their own ethical guidelines and their own support system when they are obliged to stand up against irresponsible bosses.