Web giants such as Google and Facebook should pre-screen user content before it goes online, since offensive material threatens the Internet"s overall health, according to a U.K. government report released Thursday. The recommendation comes as social-networking, video-sharing and other Web sites battle problems with cyberbullying, violence and offensive material.
Thereport, from the House of Commons" Culture Media and Sport Committee, advocates assigning a government minister to oversee Internet safety as well as other issues such as P-to-P (peer-to-peer) file sharing and targeted advertising systems. Google depends on users to report offensive videos on YouTube and removes bad ones that have been flagged within the hour, the company told the committee.