It could only be a matter of time before the World Wide Web sheds its rough edges and matures into a new phase that "automatically" guards against the intrusions of unwanted content.

Such is not a remote possibility, according to a recent blog by Australian tech expert Kevin Bermeister, who stressed that technological advances have reached the point where willing entities can block the participation of nefarious elements on the net.

It will be a clean Internet out there, Bermeister's blog said, and network specialists like Cisco, Juniper and Huawei can make that happen, and very soon.

That could mean the absolute obliteration of illegal downloads of movies, music and softwares and the disappearance, finally, of child pornography, the tech blog said, which was first reported by Stuff.co.nz.

It is likely too that in such a scenario, virus issues will become a thing of the forgotten past, Bermeister said.

And the key, he said, is for Internet service providers to collaborate with network security experts in establishing a "standard filtering protocol" that would re-channel searches for pirated materials to legitimate sellers.

In exchange for the teamup, all parties will need to agree on some form of profit sharing, the former Skype financier said.

This set up will be made possible if every Internet service providers would agree on adopting a "global file registry filter" that not only prevents illegal downloads but also restrict the free flow of violent and pornographic content, Bermeister said.

"The open Internet was never much for loyalty, and Internet providers, together with the world's largest copyright owners and media partners, may just have sufficient reason to be excited by the new world order in which the wild west days of the Internet's early beginnings are nearing their end," Stuff.co.nz reported Bermeister as arguing on his blog.

However, Bermeister's assertions may encounter resistance from many quarters, including ISPs, according to Cisco New Zealand managing director Geoff Lawrie.

The very idea itself is suppressive of the freedom that the Internet is known for, and ceding such privilege would not be something that many netizens would be willing to do, experts noted.

Lawrie added that in the case of New Zealand, ISPs in the country are more inclined to allow the prevalence of free-flowing Internet content.

"They are absolutely, passionately committed to avoiding putting themselves in a position of liability, and that is what would be implied by them stepping up to a filter," he explained.

The Cisco executive, however, agreed with Bermeister that in-placed network infrastructures are capable of implementing the content filters he was harping about.

"There is firewall software now that can look at the nature of Internet traffic and you could write a filter program that made decisions based on that," Lawrie said.