Editor's View

It wasn't so long ago that a two-screen view of 'interactive TV' was all the rage. Rather than the red button interactivity we all grew to love and then rapidly abandoned when its functional shortcomings were thrown into such stark relief, two-screen meant a combination of TV and PC.

As most things seem to do in the digital world, we've come full circle. An innovation that failed due to the lack of supporting technology and consumer behaviour foundations is finding its feet....

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With the mainstream penetration of Wi-Fi connected laptops, vegging out in front of the TV has become slightly more active as people take to their surfboards. In NMA this week research from the IAB and Thinkbox finds 64% of people use the internet while watching TV. While we discuss in this Friday's NMA Podcast, what this means for brands, the rebirth of two-screen should also have a potentially positive impact for broadcasters.

While red button interactivity on programmes has all but disappeared, with the undeniably superb Spooks the only real standout in the interactive category of the recent Baftas for instance, the use of two-screen interactivity should open new creative vistas for broadcasters and production companies. Twin-screen behaviour is now the norm for consumers. It's time for it to become so for the TV industry.

Parents around the world breathed a sigh of relief today as paedophiles were finally banned from MySpace and its social networking cousins. Days after government-funded watchdog Ofcom terrified parents with its report on their children roaming unprotected across social network sites, the Home Office today stepped in to reassure with its watertight new policy. The proposals will see convicted sex offender's email addresses passed to social sites, which will block their access.

Well that's okay then. Except, of course, it's far from okay.

Sex offenders have become incredibly adept at using the internet. The complexity and expense, and therefore success, of Operation Ore, is testament to that. Does anyone really believe registering a new email address will be beyond them?

It's easy to knock the government's approach to the internet but the mixed messages being given out are doing nothing but harm.

The mainstream media, from which the majority of the UK is educated about the internet, this morning unquestioningly regurgitated the Home Office release verbatim, under headlines such as 'MySpace ban for paedophiles'. What parents need, in fact what the government itself recommended via the Byron Review this week, is to be provided with the right information and tools to be able to protect their children while online.

Our first industry survey, in association with YouGovCentaur, the first results of which were published in NMA this week, found only 33% believing the government's strategy for child-friendly online content was clear. On recent evidence, I can't see this changing dramatically anytime soon.

Today the long awaited, well long expected anyway, Byron Review into child safety online was revealed. Unsurprisingly, the buzz words of kids, online and danger ensured widespread coverage and a loud welcome from everyone from charities to Google. But, really, is there anything more in this than the repackaged beliefs and recommendations our industry has been expressing for years?

There is almost nothing in the report that's not already widely being practiced by the industry. The online industry holds the safety of children as paramount. All major websites have solid and largely effective child safety polices. ISPs do already heavily promote parental access control software the report calls on them to do, often giving it away for free.

The report calls for the ad industry to work with online media owners on the CAP Code for under 18s. It's hard to see, with the efforts of such as the Advertising Association's Digital Media Group, how the industry could be doing more.

There is of course no argument that more can always be done to ensure children's safety online. But the Byron review smacks merely as just another example of this government's headline-grabbing approach to the internet.

In an exclusive survey of the internet industry carried out by NMA in association with YouGov, to be published in two weeks, only 18% expressed confidence in the government's ability to legislate around children online.

Which makes me think perhaps Brown's government should rely a bit less on celebrity psychologists and a bit more on consultation with the actual industry. With perhaps a dash more congratulation on the impressive amount it has already achieved.

The BBC's iPlayer has been universally applauded by consumers and critics alike. The ability of being able to catch up on the past seven days programming for free hasbeen enthusiastically taken up by viewers and its success could, as always with the BBC, play an important role in riving the market.

However, an anomaly that's arisen today highlights the remaining complexity of catch-up video-on-demand services. A complexity driven entirely by the tortuous rights processes involved.

The BBC's new legal drama Damages launched on BBC 1 on Sunday and was available through iPlayer. From Monday however, it disappeared. Viewers desperate to catch the episode they missed would though have been able to find it on Apple's iTunes. Although the first episode is free, future episodes will sell for £1.89. So it seems the BBC was unable to secure rights for iPlayer, with Sony Pictures, which owns the series, which struck a commercial deal with Apple instead.

BBC viewers currently being simultaneously bombarded with ads for free seven day catchup on iPlayer and ads for shiny new Sunday night drama Damages are going to be very confused.

If the BBC, which has for so long trumpeted the need and importance of 360 degree commissioning, can't pull it off, it's not the most heartening of news for the industry at large.

Two of last year's biggest internet story themes surrounded social networks and online identity theft. Today the BBC is reporting predictions from security experts that the two will combine this year in explosive fashion as internet criminals turn to social networks like Facebook as a fertile hunting ground.

This unsurprising prediction highlights two separate arguments. First, it seems to support the idea behind Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg's lofty ambition for Facebook to become the 'social operating system of the internet'. Why trawl the wider web for personal information when consumers are increasingly centring their personal social behaviour on these sites?

Second, the news highlights once again the critical role self-regulation, responsibility and education has to play in the development of social networks. With privacy and personal data protection set to become an increasingly emotive issue in 2008, social networks need to ensure they take a continuingly proactive rather than reactive stance. Government, regulators and perhaps most importantly consumers will be watching closely.