Industrial economies are at the threshold of potentially radical structural changes in their economic structures. Communication networks and interactive multimedia applications are providing the foundation for the transformation of existing social and economic relationships into an "information...

This statement is an initial response to the OECD Council, meeting at Ministerial level, in May 1995 to provide a policy report on the Global Information Infrastructure - Global Information Society (GII-GIS), at its meeting in May 1996.

Opportunities and risks are twins. There are few to deny the opportunities of global networks in general and of the Internet in particular. But many fear for the concomitant risks, or what they perceive as a risk. Racist speech, pornography and personality profiling rank highest in public...