Main content

The coming of the world wide web in the 1990s opened up internet access to everybody. Aleks Krotoski asks if the web's utopian ideas spread crime and obscenity.

With the coming of the World Wide Web in the 1990s internet access opened up to everybody, it was no longer the preserve of academics and computer hobbyists.
Already prior to the web, the burgeoning internet user groups and chatrooms had tested what was acceptable behaviour online, but access was still limited.

Aleks Krotoski asks whether the Web through enabling much wider use of the internet is the villain of the piece in facilitating not just entertainment and commerce, but all aspects of the darker side, from malicious computer hacking attacks, worms and viruses, to new channels for criminality, online extortion and identity theft.

Available now

28 minutes

Broadcasts

  • Wed 23 Aug 2017 09:00
  • Wed 23 Aug 2017 21:30