Just happened to read the Article “ – Govt can’t ban porn websites for obscenity
I was more shocked than surprised. Though this sort of inaction can very much be expected from the Govt, we certainly could not accept it. When the Indian IT Act amendments were being discussed and the amendment to the act were being looked at in 2008, it was a strong feeling and the Cyber Security Professionals were of the idea that the amendments would be making law bit more stringent in nature. Its exact reverse of what had been expected. I had numerous discussions with the various Cyber Security Professionals and Cyber Law experts and each one of them was expecting a drastic change in the way issue of Porn sites is dealt with. It was opined that the Govt would empower Cyber Tribunal or similar organization and convert it as a watch dog to govern the display, access and transmission of Porn material. Alas, it didn’t happen. Govt more so has cleared itself off from the responsibility on this front. Amendments to the section 69A are something that certainly have weakened the power as it was earlier identified for it. Moreover with assigning the power to block the Porn sites has been granted to the Courts and that too if a petition is filed in the Court for jurisdiction. Apparently, the govt has indirectly let Porn be prevalent in the Cyber Society, without giving a thought that this very porn is at times the cause to create nuisance in the society and leading to molestations, child abuses etc. Yeah it would be countered that how can we create the correlation between the two things. Incidentally some bright mind came up with a pretty Creative Thought – “May be Government Machinery and Think Tank would have thought as to when the Country has Given KAMASUTRA to the world, how can we stop Porn that is nothing but an extension to KAMASUTRA. They might have thought that if they block / ban porn in cyber world, the cyber community might come up with an argument that similar things are depicted as Artifacts and Artistic at various temples in Khajuraho.” Well may be, who knows.
But all said and done, don’t we think that too much of Porn is circulating around on the net and is unnecessarily leading to the situation of unrest and creating an atmosphere that would affect law and order negatively?
I am unable to understand as to Why govt can’t Enforce a Blanket Block at ISP Gateway levels? I guess rather than going with an approach of Law and Order, the Govt. can simply go ahead with issuing a notification to the ISPs to go ahead and Block all the Porn Sites right at the ISP Gateway Level itself. I don’t understand what is stopping the Govt. from doing that? or do we take it this way that the Govt. machinery is pretty happy to let Pornography be prevalent till it affects the Public Order???
There are Countries where a Country level Proxy is set-up and that blocks all the Porn sites from being accessed. An argument may come up that the countries where this sort of set-up has been deployed are smaller countries with lesser Internet traffic, where in case of India the traffic is humungous to be managed by a central Proxy. So, let me clarify that I am not saying so. What my point is – If the Govt. wants to really act in this direction, it can instruct the ISPs to deploy measures at their levels to ensure that porn sites are completely Blocked out. Govt may also conduct periodic surprise audits of the ISPs to this effect and ensure that the directive as published is well followed by the ISPs.
Mayank Trivedi
Blog – http://www.myopinions.name
Tech Blog – http://matricsindia.net.in
Comments
The article in Times of India is false and misleading. The correct position is explained in this article, "Times of India.. Is it Set to Mislead the Public on Savita Bhabhi Issue?" http://www.bloggernews.net/123795
Mayank
I don't think that beaning these sites is the solution.Banning will lead to more crimes and underhand dealings as is well known in this country. The babus and the netas r sitting , just to en cash on any and every thing they get their hands on.
The more u try to hide and ban , they become rampant and attract more attention.
Wt abt the N.D.Tiwari tapes? were they any less than a porn clip? This is a kind of example these netas project to the world.
Going to the by-lanes of Mumbai, one can see the open sale of all kind of pornographic material. The system is hand in glove with all that is happening around us.
I for one feel that, only the misuse of this stuff should be monitored on a case to case basis.
Fred Da,
Tracking and Monitoring the Porn stuff is more so a difficult stuff than banning these sites in totality. That would lead to harassment of general folks rather than the ISPs.
Naavi,
I did go through your post and would like to agree with you on more far reaching controls including bans in the porn sites and anonymizers…
Mayank
Can someone tell me , what is the harm with these porn sites? For that matter, any porn site.
Its up to an individuals discretion, what to see and what not to.
Isn't ours a free democratic country , where we have freedom to a lot many illegal things legally..
It is the stuck up brains of our hypocrite bigwigs who do everything ,and when exposed, talk of banning.
Fred Da,
these porn sites are not harmful per say, but with the low rate of Internet Awareness among the average household and the way Indian community is, the parents don't know whether their kids are using the facility for accessing better resources or for surfing on Porn Sites. A lot of effort is needed to this effect for that matter. Due to the low awareness among the average household about the abundant Porn stuff that is available on the net, the parents don't know what to do. Also, with the average cost (as considered higher) of the tools available to aid parents in their effort to govern internet usage by their kids , its a tough stuff. Raising the awareness level of the parents would be a tougher task and that would require more concentrated efforts to push through by the government and NGOs. The actual nuisance is because of the accessibility of these porn sites without any age verification. If we are not looking at a Ban / Blocking these sites, then these sites need to be governed by stricter rules of ensuring that the Age verification systems are followed with putting up a central repository similar to that of Credit Worthiness. It has to be a concentrated effort from all the sides to ensure that the younger generation does not get succumbed to Porn addiction. I often get to know of the cases where misusing the Porn Sites, teachers seduce their teenage students or the teenage students engage between themselves or even make an attempt with their teachers….its just not one scenario…..if some one does not succeed on one front they try another and there have been few cases of Incest and Molestations too where the culprit accepted to have got the idea from Porn sites and then used the same to either force / convince the victim…..From the Social Cause, i feel a Ban is the best way, and if someone still wants to access, there needs to be age verification parameter to pass through.