Cyber experts slam govt for ban on porn sites

NEW DLEHI: Cyber experts have slammed the government's sweeping ban on over 800 pornographic websites - despite revoking a similar suspension on them around three years back - and said that it does not hold a legal sanction as no there is no law in the country that prohibits pornography.

While clarifying that strict action and enforcement is required on websites that engage in child abuse videos and similar such activities, the experts say that banning pornographic websites does not have merit. "There is no law in the country which makes watching pornography an offence," cyber law expert Pawan Duggal said. Vague mechanisms to tackle child pornography may also not be a practical solution.

"In fact, a blanket ban is not a very effective mechanism. It is self-defeating and tends to generate more traffic to the blocked websites who many-a-times come up with new URLs and change their servers."

The government had on October 22 played net nanny yet again and in a big swoop against online pornography, it banned 827 websites. It asked internet service providers and telecom companies to block them with "immediate effect".

While taking the decision to purportedly tackle videos showing sexual abuse of children, the ban surprisingly stretches to general pornography websites. Surprisingly, the action - initiated by the ministry of IT & electronics, and the Department of Telecom (DoT) - comes three years after it had ordered a similar exercise, but had to withdraw the same in around a week after facing flak across social media where it was seen to be engaging in "moral policing".

The websites taken down include xvideos.com, pornhub. com, playboy.com, youporn. com, hindisex.com, pinkythekinky.com, theporndude. com, hindisex-.com, indianpornovid.com, indiansex.com, porno.com, redtube.com, xhamster.com, webcam.com, fakku.net, adultfriendfinder.com, sexyteensphotos. com, and desipapa. com.

The latest diktat, issued on October 22, names a series of websites/URLs which were ordered to be taken down by the Uttarakhand HC following a PIL on the matter. While the court had ordered the blocking of 857 websites, the government struck down 30 from the list after it found that they "may not be containing pornographic material."