ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of the major developments in the area of national and international cooperative measures for effective online industry self-regulation and considers some possible international principles for cyberspace. The exponential growth in usage of online services in the United States during the late 1980s and early 1990s led to demands for Internet operations to be regulated. One of the most important policy and legislative responses to the development of the Internet was the introduction by the US government of the Communications Decency Act 1996 (CDA) in early 1996. One of the consequences of the US Supreme Court's rejection of the CDA in July 1997 was the calling of an Internet online summit, entitled 'Focus on Children', to examine alternative strategies to promote children's interests online. This included the use of the Internet to distribute child pornography and to prey on children and means of limiting children's access to harmful material.
