Building a new Internet

How do you cut online crime, tackle child pornography, halt crippling viruses and get rid of spam? The answers could lie in a £200m successor to the internet that computer experts are already referring to as the next rendition of the virtual world.

Researchers in the US want at least $350m (£175m) to build the Global Environment for Network Innovations (Geni), touted by some as the possible replacement for today's internet. In Europe, similar projects are under way as part of the EU's Future and Internet Research (Fire) programme, which is expected to cost at least £27m.

With online crime rising and traffic increasing rapidly, some academics believe it is time to have a serious discussion about what succeeds today's internet.

"There's a real need to have better identity management, to declare your age and to know that when you're talking to, say, Barclays bank, that you're really doing so," said Jonathan Zittrain, professor of internet governance and regulation at the Oxford Internet Institute.

At the moment we are still using very clumsy methods to approach such problems. The result: last year alone, identity theft and online fraud cost British victims an estimated £414m, while one recent report claimed 93% of all email sent from the UK was spam.