Along with the spectacle of the Olympic games, the world is being treated to the founding of a major global broadcaster - YouTube.

The site, which has encouraged millions of people with video cams to "Broadcast Yourself", is the official online channel for the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The IOC launched the online channel on YouTube (www.youtube.com/beijing2008) so it could broadcast at least some of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games to 77 territories across Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The countries include India and Indonesia, which both have sizeable populations.

The online 'channel' is geo-blocked, meaning is only available to places where digital video-on-demand rights have not been sold or have been acquired on a non-exclusive basis.

Thus if you search for Olympics on YouTube from Bermuda, all you will see as a top choice is some guy getting on and off his couch in a variety of ways. Go figure.

The Olympic broadcast deal is the first inkling of how YouTube could be transformed into something other than as a place to expose the best and the worst in human beings.

In fact, behind the facade of popular culture, YouTube has become an important point of reference for businesses and the research community, among others. For example many scientific projects park their videos on YouTube as a means of demonstrating the results of their work to colleagues and the public.

YouTube, which was one of the transformers of the Internet, is now poised to take another gigantic step forward. If developed, YouTube could make personal broadcasting more interesting by competing with the major TV networks, which still have not cottoned on to the internet in a meaningful way.

Unfortunately having your lunch eaten by someone else is the fate of many industry sectors. One only has to think of how the music, movie and print media companies have held back their own development (and service to their customers) by not embracing the changes fast enough.

Others have stepped into the breach, and instead of taking the hint, the old guard has preferred to beat them up in court, along with the people who used such sources.

Now broadcast companies have their own elephant on the digital superhighway.

Perhaps executives should read the IOC compelling economic case for incorporating the cultural shift in consumption.

"By offering an abundance of freely available content across media platforms around the world, including over the internet, the IOC believes it is limiting the risk of piracy infringements," the governing body says.

Right on, I say.

For businesses and other event organisers the IOC-YouTube tie-up represents another way to bypass the middleman, the mainstream media, and communicate directly with the public.

That is good news for the public, which now has an opportunity to go directly to source, so as to speak. In theory, this is more unfiltered information. In practice, it could also mean more propaganda.

Meanwhile the media will have to come up with more compelling ways to show it makes a valued-added contribution in bringing information to the public.

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Here is a survey that should have every parent worried - but hopefully not paranoid. The BBC reports that identity firm Garlik did a survey of 1,000 children in the UK and found that one in five has met a stranger they first encountered online.

The survey also found that one in four eight to 12-year-olds ignore age restrictions to use social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo.

And two-thirds of the youngsters interviewed said they have posted personal information on their pages, including details of the school they attend and their mobile telephone number.

This despite the fact that the survey (which also questioned 1,030 parents) found that 89 percent of parents claimed to have spoken to their children about the dangers posed by social networking sites.

If the talking is not working then perhaps parents need to consider how they approach the matter.

Perhaps a few scary examples of what has happened in the past to some children who met up with their online chat 'buddies' would shore up their defenses more.

I am opposed to too much monitoring of online activity, as I believe children should have a reasonable expectation of privacy.

But then again, it depends on the situation and how open you and your child are.

Send any comments to elamin.ahmed@gmail.com