Editorial»
Policing the web
AUG 28 -
This week, the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) amended the terms and conditions of licenses issued to internet service providers (ISPs), requiring them to block websites containing pornographic material. Though this attempt to curb the adverse effects of lewd websites on Nepali society may have its merits, there are several points to consider before the plan is implemented.
Though the material on some websites legally warrants a block—those including illegal content like child pornography certainly deserve to be shut down—the actual material on a large majority of pornographic sites is not in violation of any law. Even though the Electronic Transaction Act may have banned publication and display of pornography websites, prohibiting the public from accessing the material these websites provide, it might be argued, is criminalising human sexuality. In the least, by issuing these controls, it may be denying people of an appropriate, responsible age access to needed information about sexuality. Furthermore, imposing these regulations also places moral authority in the government or ISP's hands, disregarding views and information that don't conform to their subjective moral view.
It is true, pornographic websites are not suitable for children. And with a growing number of young teenagers frequenting cyber cafes, a lack of supervision gives them free reign to explore the vast expanse of the World Wide Web—one of the arguments behind restricting the information available on the internet. But this begs the question: who should be in charge of regulating what Nepal's youth are allowed to expose themselves to? The bottom line is, the responsibility of controlling youth behaviour is something that is perhaps better relegated to parents and improved at-risk education in the classroom.
All moral and ethnical qualms aside, with pornographic websites proliferating at such an exponential rate (some experts estimate four million pornographic websites are added to the internet each day), it is highly unlikely that Nepal's ISPs will be able to keep up. Rather, these private companies may be inundated with the task of policing the internet rather than carrying out their day-to-day business. And even if ISPs are able to block a significant amount of the pornography sites from entering Nepal's homes and internet cafes, it is almost certain that, given a little time and will, these blocks are nothing a net-savvy individual won't be able to easily circumvent. Legally too, private ISPs are responsible for providing the technical capacity to distribute and share information, not for the content that flows through their networks.
The internet is a cosmic web of information, both good and bad. Trying to prevent the bad from corrupting society by isolating internet users from select websites may be a bit short-sighted and places undue technical burdens on ISPs. As experience in neighbouring India and Sri Lanka shows, despite blocks, use of proxy servers is common knowledge to their netizens. In the end, placing blocks on pornographic websites is unlikely to yield the kind of result that the ban's enforcers are hoping for.
Posted on: 2010-08-29 08:29
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