UK wants user generated content filtered

The U.K. government wants large web portals to pre-screen user generated content before it goes online, a task that is likely to drive YouTube crazy.

A report from the House of Commons' Culture Media and Sport Committee wants to assign a government minister to oversee Internet safety, as well as other issues like P2P file sharing and targeted ad systems.  Concerns come from problems with cyberbullying, violence, and offensive material.

Google's YouTube depends on users to report offensive videos and remove bad ones that have been flagged within an hour, it told the committee. But the committee didn't like Google's claim that it wasn't possible to pre-screen all video content given the volume of video YouTube receives--10 hours of video every minute.

MySpace got kudos from the committee since it had several hundred people screening images and video, taking down offensive material within two hours with a goal to cut the time down to an hour.

The European Union's Ecommerce Directive doesn't require service providers to prescreen content, but that isn't stopping Italian prosecutors from threatening to file criminal charges against four company executives for allowing a video of a disabled child being bullied to get posted on Google's Video service.

For more:
- PC World reports on UK proposal for user content review

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