England hold "on Virtual Worlds London Conference" on 1-2 November 2011

UK - The presence and development of cyberspace has changed the world and revolutionized our daily lives. It's become a global challenge and requires a coordinated response. However, until now, the debate about the response as to what to do has been split and disoriented. Britain believes that there must be changes. It should be immediately performed a more active international consensus, and this decision should be a joint effort involving the main actors in cyberspace.

I therefore invite some representatives, not only from governments but also from the public and business people to attend the Conference on Virtual Worlds London on 1-2 November 2011. We must come together to look at how to manage social and economic benefits of the internet as well as protect it from crime and security threats in cyberspace without turning off its innovation potential in the future. Rapid development in cyberspace, with its strength as a liaison, has created economic opportunity and social incredible where in two decades ago this might not happen. The development of the social networking world has become of interest to us all: for every 10% increase in broadband access, is expected to increase the average GDP (gross domestic product) of 1.3%.

Web-based industry has become the most important part in our economy. Globally, there is an e-commerce transactions amounted to U.S. $ 8 billion each year.

Now many countries are relying on the Internet to do anything, to finish the job, learn new skills, communicate with friends, even to pay taxes. The Internet also trigger innovation and creativity, as well as educating a whole generation at least by providing easy access to information and new ideas. Our dependence on the virtual world blurring geographical boundaries, breaking down the separation of religion and traditional culture, uniting the family and relatives as well as facilitate relationships to share their opinions and interests. The Internet has changed the way we communicate.

Internet has been growing transparency and facilitate the people to monitor the government. The turmoil in the Middle East demonstrate the ability of cyberspace as a place to share ideas for change and help people to struggle against an oppressive regime, showing the brutality of the regime to the whole world.

Some Challenges

Cyberspace has helped improve public services, aid to the emergency conditions and natural disasters, it also solves crime cases. In developing countries, the Internet has made changes and give lots of things for a better future, ranging from providing information to rural communities to monitor HIV patients and predict outbreaks of epidemic diseases.

However, the increase in world berjerjaring has also created significant challenges that undermine all the benefits and demonstrates a serious threat that could destroy all the potential of cyberspace. Digital access imbalance still occurs: where 95% of the people of Iceland have had internet access, but only 0.1% of the people of Liberia who have access. Two-thirds of the world's population still can not access the internet.

The virtual world also creates opportunities to commit crime, be used to steal identities or ideas, to cheat the government and business, also exploit the community. Financial losses to cyber crime worth $ 1 trillion per year globally. Social loss is much greater. The terrorists also use the Internet to plan deadly attacks and flooding chat rooms with their poisonous ideologies in order to recruit future generations.

Repressive governments use technology to violate people's rights; limit privacy and freedom of opinion and to prevent access to information. The virtual world also has opened new channels for countries to launch attacks by damaging infrastructure or steal secrets, and this is known by the term 'cyber war'. We do not underestimate any existing problems. Some countries do not agree with our view of the positive impact of the internet. Thus, achieving a broad international consensus is not easy and will take time.

This is one of the biggest challenges for us. No one controls the internet, and we should not squelch the future of the internet. We have the opportunity to achieve a future of strong and innovative, but we also face the risk of misuse of the internet. We must act now if we want to protect and maintain all the incredible opportunities available in cyberspace. In London, we want to set an agenda that will allow the world to enjoy the benefits of a safe virtual world for future generations.

HAVE YOUR SAY:

You can participate with questions and opinions about the future of virtual worlds. Some questions and opinions that will be included when the Conference. Please convey your questions and opinions in this article.

I hope you use this opportunity as a solution to meet the challenges of the virtual world does not only depend on the government's hands alone.

You can also let us know what you by:

Twitter:

Please leave your question in English before the conference took place, or when the conference took place. Use the hashtag # LondonCyber to common questions and add the following hashtag appropriate to the theme of your questions: # social, # economic, # crime, # access, # security, to help us match you with the theme of discussion questions right.

Follow @ LondonCyber for the latest information about conferences and debates online.

Facebook

You can visit the Secretary of State's Facebook page (www.facebook.com / williamjhague) and ask questions in English. You can also help us observe the most demanding questions by pressing the 'like' in some of the questions that have been submitted.

William Hague is the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom. This article is translated and transmitted exclusively by the British Embassy in Jakarta and arranged in order to "Virtual Worlds London Conference on" 1-2 November 2011

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