If Britain's Culture Secretary Andy Burnham has his way, new international rules may soon be drawn up for English language Web sites! Burnham informed the Daily Telegraph that he plans to negotiate the prospect with US President-elect Barack Obama's incoming administration.

Pursuing the need for the application of new standards of decency to the Web, Burnham opines that individual Web sites should be given film-style ratings. He said a move like this would better regulate the Internet - which he describes as 'quite a dangerous place' - and guard youngsters against offensive material.

Stressing on the need for setting industry-wide "take down times", Burnham said that once some harmful or offensive content is brought to the notice of the websites like YouTube or Facebook, they should be required to remove it within specific period.

In addition, Burnham also said that Britain was considering a change in defamation laws such that people may get access to legal help in case they are defamed online.

If such changes, amounting to censor, are brought about in the functioning of the Websites, there is every possibility that these would go to the heart of a debate about freedom of speech on the World Wide Web.

However, remarking against the likelihood of raking a controversy, Burnham said: "This is not a campaign against free speech, far from it; it is simply there is a wider public interest at stake when it involves harm to other people. We have got to get better at defining where the public interest lies and being clear about it."