Between economic development and human rights : balancing E-Commerce and adult content filtering

Notwithstanding its many positive attributes, the internet also poses serious risks for the human rights of some of the most vulnerable users: children. As is the case with their peers in the developed world, minors in developing countries also face the threat of online adult content exposure. Efforts to address this have been under way in the United Kingdom, Poland, and United States (cf., Utah) relying on different regulatory methods. Whilst, both, self-regulation and State regulation may comply with international requirements on the freedom of services and the freedom of expression, they must still be scrutinised properly. The present contribution shall examine regulatory means in relation to addressing the issue of child exposure to adult content in the developed and developing parts of the world. In sum, statutory regulation appears more suited to serving the interests of developing countries than soft law and self-regulatory approaches, as public and mandatory measures may bring greater transparency and may usually make it possible to challenge individual decisions or abstract regulations before national courts.