Indian Government Bans 39 Porn Websites

Pornography is easily one of the most sorted topics on the Internet. It has been credited to being one of the driving forces behind the expansion of the World Wide Web. Reportedly over 12 % of the websites online are porn websites and 25% of the search engine requests Pornographic related.

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Pornography has different legal standing in different countries. While watching or distributing child pornography is illegal in India, adult porn is not. In recent turn of events, the government of India has imposed a ban on certain websites that allow users to share pornographic content.

Department Of Telecom (DoT) has directed internet service providers to block 39 websites. Most of theses websites are reportedly web forums where users share images and links to downloadable content. A few sites which are basically file hosts that store both pornographic and non-pornographic content have also been banned.

According to report by Times Of India, the website that have been blocked are hosted outside India and apparently come under 18 USC 2257 rule enforced by the US. As per the rule producers of pornographic material are required to have records showing that the performers are over 18 years of age at the time of video or photo shoot.

The directive issued bu DoT reads "It has been decided to immediately block the access to the following URLs... you are accordingly directed to immediately block the access to above URLs,". However the department has not specified reasons or laws behind which these websites have been blocked.

When you try to access these websites, you will either get a blank page or a message telling "this website has been blocked until further notice either pursuant to court orders or on the directions issued by the Department of Telecommunications".

A senior DoT official told Times Of India that the department was only following the orders issued by cyber security coordination committee and therefore he could not discuss about the reasons behind the block.

Some people might say this is going overboard, but in the end people of India can only access media content that the government will allow them to. TV watching experience is already being ruined by ridiculous censorship, now it's internet's turn to get some belting.

Sunil Abraham, director of CIS said " I have travelled to China and Middle East and have seen that people access pornographic websites using various web tools. In fact, by banning websites the governments have made it more alluring for users to watch and access pornography".

Source: OnlineMBA, Times Of India