“When good sites turn bad”: the ethics of digital libraries and internet legislation

To examine how well internet legislation that is imposed on libraries actually works, and to suggest ways of improving regulatory control of the web with a view to helping digital library service provision.

A summary description of two library‐related instances of dealing with morally objectionable web content, combined with an analysis of the range of regulatory responses to these examples.

That draconian web‐oriented legislation in the most overtly controversial areas of the internet can harm more that it can help; and that an active but more measured legislative response to other areas of internet management where there is need for greater regulation would be welcome.

There is a clear need for deeper investigation of the practical effect and actual outcomes of authoritarian internet regulation on information users, as opposed to the superficial intentions of such law‐making.

Firm suggestions for improving the practice of internet and digital library regulation are made.

This paper gives clear examples of where internet legislation works well and where it does not, in the hope of illuminating and stimulating debate on this topic.