UK Press wants blogers to behave themselves...yeah right

I think this idea of having a voluntary “code of conduct” in the blogosphere is funny on a couple of levels:

Blogs and other internet sites should be covered by a voluntary code of practice similar to that for newspapers in the UK, a conference has been told.

Press Complaints Commission director Tim Toulmin said he opposed government regulation of the internet, saying it should a place “in which views bloom”.

But unless there was a voluntary code of conduct there would be no form of redress for people angered at content.

First, it’s funny because it already exists. If you step way out of line in the blogosphere, you’re gonna get smacked around a little by the rest of the bloggers. If you step out of line too often, you’ll get ignored (which is even worse).

Sure, it’s like a giant collection of emotional schoolchildren, but I can’t think of a harsher group of police.

Second, it’s funny because, like scoble almost says, it really sounds like he’s afraid of bloggers (and he wants them to be more like press). Yeah - we’ll take well to that idea. I think he doesn’t quite get it yet.