In this weeks Culture and Technology reading the bit that sparked questioning I’ve always had in regard to the internet is the idea of government regulation. This may be (and probably is) due to my ignorance of the internet in general but I’ve never understood how the internet can be controlled and regulated by governments. Obviously North Korea and China to a certain extent (and I’m assuming every other country) put controls on what can be seen online and certain websites that can and can’t be accessed, although I can’t work out how they do this.

I also get ridiculously confused over how law is enforced online, especially considering it involves many countries and that I am aware of, there is no international governing body beyond the UN and especially nothing that is controlling the internet.

I just wonder if there are all these mechanisms that I’m oblivious to working behind the scenes or the internet is really as open as it feels.

I vaguely remember my year 9 teacher saying that she got blocked from certain sites or her email turned off or something (my memory is obviously failing me with the details here) because she had so many google searches and emails coming in with the word ‘terrorism’ – because she was teaching a course on terrorism and then her account got disabled for a certain period of time. Therefore, there must be something, right?