Steps to ban porn websites:

Victims of 'sexual curiosity'

Sajitha Prematunge

'Porn stars' are coming out of the woodworks these days. One might wonder whether this coined phrase is a name of another reality show. Well show or not this is 'real'. Last month the Women and Children's Bureau took a leap of faith in order to counter pornographic websites by publishing 83 mugshots of men and women who had taken part in pornographic material.

It turned out that some of them were victimized by their estranged lovers who posted their lurid videos in websites without their consent. However Women and Children's Bureau, Officer-in-Charge, Buddhika Balachandra said that it is not so much the publishing of 83 photographs that matters, but the message that this action by the Bureau, sent. "This shows that people who commit these offences will be held accountable." Three hundred photographs were run through experts to confirm that the images were not tampered with, out of which the 83 was selected.

To date 1017 pornographic websites have already been banned. According to OIC Balachandra the biggest problem encountered by law enforcement in Sri Lanka is stopping child sex abuse. He explained that watching such erotic videos corrupts the mind and this in turn increases crimes against women and children because these promote the mentality of using women and even children as sex objects.

Illegal

According to Sri Lankan law possessing pornographic material or watching them is illegal. According to Section two of Obscene Publications (Amendment) Act No 22, producing or aiding the production of pornographic material for commercial purposes is a punishable crime. Once convicted a perpetrator can face a jail term of up to six months and a fine of Rs 10,000.

"It is only illegal if they engaged in these acts for a commercial purpose," said Human Rights Commission, Legal Secretary, Nimal Punchihewa. "And not if they were posted on pornographic websites by a third party, without their consent." He explained that it is of vital importance that this is confirmed before their identity is compromised.

Nimal Punchihewa is of the view that attempt should be made to ascertain why these men and women were forced to engage in such activity and remedy the root cause. In his view foreign pornographic websites inflict greater damage on Sri Lankan society than locally produced pornography.

Moreover he added that with today's standard of cyber technology, blocking such sites may not be so pragmatic. Pornography could not be countered with law and technology alone. There should be an attitudinal transformation, which can only be achieved through proper sex education.

Censoring

According to Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) Chairman, Anusha Palpita, they are willing to block identified pornographic sites as and when a court order is issued.

He argued that there is no point in spending millions of rupees on special software to censor such sites, when they can just as easily be accessed through proxies. He claimed that it is much easier for end users, such as parents who are hoping to restrict internet access by children, to use a parental guidance software.

The University of Colombo is now in the process of determining the best end user content filtering software for the Sri Lankan public. "This does not mean that the Internet Service Providers (ISP) cannot do it, they very well can," said Colombo University, School of Computing, Head of Software Development, Dr Harsha Wijewardhane, but went on to explain that content filtering at the end of the ISP can mean a lot of complications such as malfunctions and slow service, if not properly done.

Piggyback

With today's ever developing technology attempting to block pornography is like trying to hold a balloon under water, explained Sociologist Dr Praneeth Abeysundara. According to him this is a rising social problem that required an immediate solution. However he points out that censoring is not pragmatic. The approach has to be holistic." He explained that Sri Lanka was traditionally a closed culture, but is in the process of opening up to a global culture. Consequently there now exists great discrepancies between social dimensions and our culture. "There is a huge cultural lag." And sexual curiosity is its ultimate result. Knowledge is expanding, there is a raised social consciousness, "Even grade six students are 'sexually aware'" said Dr Abeysundara. Unfortunately we lack proper sex education. On top of it parents' socialization process has changed drastically, providing children with easy access to the internet. The human mind is not as pure as we think, it is corrupt. Dr Abeysundara explained that 'obscene' material can not possibly be censored from art, such as painting and literature.

Instead people who piggyback on the poverty of women and make a business out of selling pornography should be subject to harsh punishment.