I think content is appalling, disgusting and unrealistically terrible. If you sit down some Saturday afternoon or on a rainy Sunday and, with a bit of imagination, start going through the web, you will find right-wing stuff that is as bad as the Nazis, and you will find jihadist literature that advocates the systematic killing of people. That's not talking about the dark web, which is another problem again. I think content is a real issue.
I would argue that what Facebook is trying to do is a good first step, but I really don't want Facebook to become my thought controller. On the other hand, I worry rather the same way about governments. I don't want governments to become my thought controllers by determining what happens. I think we need a bit of a national discussion on who does this.
One way that Parliament has dealt with this issue is in the area of money laundering. You may recall there was a debate years ago about how to deal with money laundering: Were we just going to make it a crime? What Parliament basically did is that they imposed an obligation on banks to know their clients. That has significantly improved the capability of everybody to deal with money laundering. It hasn't eliminated it, but it has helped it.
I think there is something to be said for government setting up a framework, either statutory or regulatory, which requires companies that play in this broad area to know whom they're allowing to access the web and then to direct them as to what they can and can't do.
Because of my old age and after 40 years in government, I've become a bit wary about being told what to think, but whether it's government or the private sector, I think there needs to be a measure of transparency so that we know both what is being done and what is not being done.
But none of this is going to work, I think, if the average Canadian isn't more aware of what's available and that average Canadian has some means of registering his or her displeasure. Right now, yes, you can call the Mounties, but they have so much to worry about that it's pretty low in their priorities.