New guidelines have been issued to all members of the Armed Forces to ensure that they receive proper authorisation before divulging their thoughts and experiences in internet blogs, chat rooms and other forms of communicating with the public.

The dramatic rise in new technological ways of bursting into print has forced the Ministry of Defence to remind servicemen and women to beware of saying anything that might breach or compromise operational security.

The guidelines, which have been circulated to all three Armed Forces, embrace everything from YouTube videos to blogs. The decision to update existing guidelines to include the new forms of technology followed the publication of the report by Tony Hall, the former head of BBC News and now chief executive of the Royal Opera House, into the MoD’s handling of the media after the release of the 15 sailors and Marines who were seized and detained by Iran.

In his report published in June, Mr Hall was scathing about the decision to allow two of the hostages to sell their stories to the media, and his recommendation that this should never happen again was accepted by the MoD. A formal ban on selling stories to the newspapers has now been written into an updated version of the Queen’s Regulations.

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The MoD has also taken action to make sure that all service personnel seek authorisation before starting to write blogs or communicate with the outside world about experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan in chat rooms. A spokeswoman for the MoD said: “These are not new rules. These or similar rules have been around for at least a decade. But they have been updated to reflect the findings of the Hall report and changes in communications technology, such as the growth of the web.”

She added: “Most public and private organisations of any size in the UK and elsewhere have rules on the authorisation processes to be followed before people speak to the media. This is not unique to the MoD. We want our people to speak about what they do but they must be properly authorised.”

Swapping stories and discussing rumours on internet chat rooms are popular among the British military.

One of the biggest sites, the British Army Rumour Service at arrse.co.uk, prides itself on being “The unofficial British Army community website”.

The US Government placed similar restrictions on its personnel in Iraq this year. In May soldiers reacted with dismay after the Pentagon blocked their access to websites including YouTube and MySpace, used widely to send and receive messages and pictures to loved ones at home. The Pentagon said that it was a security decision to protect sensitive information being seen by the enemy. While the military has been relatively unscathed recently by sensitive information becoming publicly available on social networks, other professions have been severely embarrassed.

Last month police officers were facing disciplinary action after posting their antics on the networking website Facebook.

One video clip showed a policewoman pretending to do a striptease, while in other postings another officer pretended to be using a “loaded” banana. Three officers were snapped posing as the three wise monkeys and a policewoman was handcuffed to a swivel chair and pushed around in it.

Service personnel are currently bound by the Queen’s Regulations, which mean that they must seek permission before speaking to the press but are free to blog and take part in online debates.

The arrse.co.uk unofficial website was full of debate about the issue yesterday. One post said: “Why does it not occur to MoD that if it did things properly, and treated its people well, they wouldn’t feel the need to bring things into the public arena quite so often, and they wouldn’t need to spend so much time covering up?”

Geoffrey Robertson, QC, a leading human rights lawyer, told The Guardian that the new guidelines could contravene the Human Rights Act. “It’s increasingly important, given Britain’s escalating foreign troop engagements, often in conjunction with less-disciplined forces, that soldiers, officers and officials can speak frankly to the media about their engagements without having their honest briefing subject to any spin,” he said.

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