"Self-Regulation of Digital Media Converging on the Internet: Industry Codes of Conduct in Sectoral Analysis," Oxford University Programme in Comparative Media Law & Policy (30 April 2004, 103 pages, 824kb pdf - download here):
Thanks to the European Digital Rights Initiative for the pointer."This report examines the regulation of harmful or otherwise inappropriate content, particularly minors' access to such content... The primary case studies concern the providers of connectivity and content hosting on the Internet, and of their Codes of Conduct (CoCs). Further case studies consider the models for self-regulation from other media, notably: press self-regulation; film and video classification; computer games ratings schemes; broadcasting self-regulatory schemes; mobile telephony content regulation. Special attention is given to the effect of the Internet and regulatory trends on demand for self-regulation across the traditional and new media industry sectors...
"An imperfect self-regulatory solution may be better than no solution at all, and we must not raise our standards so high that self-regulation is never attempted. But there are limits to how much imperfection can be tolerated, and for how long. If self-regulatory codes and institutions are insufficiently transparent and accountable, and if they do not observe accepted standards of due diligence, they will lose the trust of the public and fail. There is a danger that some aspects of internet self-regulation fail to conform to accepted standards. We recommend co-regulatory audit as the best balance of fundamental rights and responsive regulation."