A survey that was conducted by the BBC of 27,000 adult people in 26 different countries 79 percent believe access to Internet should be a fundamental right.

The International Telecommunication Union a UN instutite that regulates usage of ICTs among UN member states is already pushing for the Internet to be classed as basic infrastructure by governments much like water and roads.

According to the GlobeScan survey, most of those surveyed believed that the Internet has a positive impact, such as bringing more freedom.

The top three aspects of the Internet that caused most concerned were fraud (32 percent), violent or explicit content (22 percent) and threats to privacy (20 percent). State censorship and the extent of corporate on-line presence came right at the bottom with 6 percent and 3 percent respectively.

However there were strong divisions between countries regarding whether or not governments should become involved in regulating the online world; residents of South Korea were strongly against the idea, while 55 percent in the UK supported it.

The BBC survey also indicated that the question of regulation is not one that can easily be assessed based on a single question, which is far too general.

"The Internet covers many areas and such questions are likely to receive different answers when focused upon specific categories,” indicated the survey.

Such regulations would include regulation of child abuse content, regulation of news content or free speech.
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