SIR Tim Berners-Lee – the former Dorset man who invented the world wide web – has called for a global digital “bill of rights” to protect internet users.

Sir Tim, who lived at Colehill and worked at Plessey in Poole, made his call for a document similar to the Magna Carter as he prepared to mark the web’s 25th anniversary.

He said people who use the web should be able to use it to communicate without being blocked or feeling that somebody is “looking over our shoulder''.

“The people of the world have to be constantly looking out for it – constantly making sure, through action, protest, that it doesn't happen,” he said.

“Are we going to continue on the road and just allow the governments to do more and more control, more and more surveillance?

“Or are we going to going to set up a bunch of values? Are we going to set up something like a Magna Carta for the world wide web and say, actually, now it’s so important, so much part of our lives, that it becomes on a level with human rights?”

Sir Tim laid the foundations for the worldwide web 25 years ago with a document called Information Management: A Pro-posal.