Govt. Nepal Bans Porn Sites — Fight Pornography Addiction (Anti Pornography)
With porn buffs perpetually defying the government ban on pornographic websites, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) has decided to come up with a new code of conduct. So far the August 2010 ban hasn’t deterred porn website seekers, prompting the MoST to focus on public awareness instead of randomly blocking the websites promoting nudity.
Ever since a warning notice was issued by the Home Ministry in 2010, more than 150 porn sites have been blocked, according to police data. However, if the figures recorded by Google are considered, the number of porn subscribers online in Nepal has not declined even after the ban. The number of internet users in Nepal looking for pornographic and nude contents, says Google Insight (a record keeping application), is maintaining a staggering growth rate of over 150 percent.
According to 2011 data, keywords such as “porn”, “teen nude”, “blue films”, “free sex videos”, “Nepali blue films” and “sex stories” are some of the major keywords searched in Google. It says searches with “free porn” keyword has a growth rate of 110%. Similarly the growth rate for googled “blue films” is above 190 percent. Google searches for Indo-Canadian porn star Sunny Leone is highest this year with an
astounding growth rate of above 300%.
“In coordination with the police, we blocked some particular porn websites,” said Binay Bohara, chairman of Internet Service Providers’ Association of Nepal (ISPA).”
But there may be thousands of other such sites that are not in our knowledge. People who are really fond of clicking these sites cannot be controlled by blocking a few handfuls of pornographic websites.”
Therefore, the “moral firewall” they are thinking of building now is expected to bring down the number gradually, if not overnight, said MoST Spokesperson Kedar Neupane. “The code of conduct will be aimed at preventing the misuse of porn sites through Google.”. According to him, blocking the sites itself is not a better solution if government realy wants to make public morally and socially responsible.
“Millions of such websites exist in the world and they can be viewed anywhere just at the click of a fingertip,” he said. “So the better solution is not to forcefully block websites. The public should be told what harm porn websites can do them and their society,” “Once public start realizing these things, the number of online porn seekers will automatically dwindle.” The code of conduct that is still in the early phase of discussions within the MoST has not been finalized yet. “We are preparing to hold talks with Internet Service Providers and Nepal
Telecommunications Authority for this.” said a MoST official.
This article has been written to increase awareness of ammunition to fight pornography addiction now. I want to thank Mr. Ankit Adhikari for raising awareness against pornography. You guys also act now and support anti-pornography.