If you think Tim O'Reilly's proposed blogging code of conduct is a poor idea (Mathew Ingram calls it "dumb" and Jason Calacanis twittered that it must be a late April Fools joke), you should hear Arthur McGarrigle talk about YouTube. I did, this morning on NPR's broadcast of BBC news. McGarrigle is a teacher's representative (sort of a union head, I gather) in North Ireland, and he wants YouTube to remove videos of cyber bullying. He cited an example of a clip depicting a teacher whose pants had been pulled down, accompanied by the raucous laughter of juvenile pranksters.

McGarrigle labored under several misperceptions and alarmist ideas. First, that YouTube should act as arbiter of taste, or as a benign universal parent, deleting videos that might hurt feelings. Second, McGarrigle proposed that anonymous uploading be prohibited, so that every bullying perpetrator could be tracked down. Third, and the most profound misunderstanding, McGarrigle seems to think that human nature can be curbed on the Internet, the freest and most uninhibited venue for the expression of all human moods and tendencies.

I can't help believing that Tim O'Reilly is affected by the same delusions as McGarrigle, though in a less panicky manner. O'Reilly wants bloggers to agree to prohibit anonymous commenting by implementing email confirmation. This is both undesirable on some blogs and naive on all blogs. Confirmation emails do not pierce the anonymity of anyone who wants to remain hidden, and it's actually rather startling that Tim O'Reilly would pretend that they do.

Some of what O'Reilly proposes ("ignore the trolls") is the kind of mandate that everyone was repeating in 1992 when I got started in this business, and requires periodic restatement as a reminder. That's fine. But let's keep a grip on reality. Codes and laws describe ideal human behavior, but they don't really have much power over human behavior. Society writes laws that most people already agree about and follow. Burglery is against the law because most people aren't burglars. Those who are burglars toss aside the law to burgle. (Is there a more amusing verb than "to burgle"?)

Let's resist codification of blogging, and of the Internet generally. Frontier freedoms are short-lived enough without hastening their demise through rigid thinking and formalized behavior.