Should Adult Porn Websites be Banned in India?

The Chief Justice of India (CJI) K G Balakrishnan said last week in the Cyber Law Enforcement Programme and National Consultation meeting in New Delhi, that there was an urgent need to ban websites that circulate pornography.

Do you agree with the CJI? Will this be against the freedom of speech and expression? Is it like Talibanism, if implemented?

I had this cases, when I was browsing a normal website, porn advertisement banner (not Google Ads) were displayed. Clicking on it and seeing porn is my decision. But without my permission, the advertisement was displayed, which offended me. Such advertisements should be controlled. Nobody should be shown online porn or porn ads without their permission. User should be given a warning message for the first time before they enter inside the adult-only website. If a child still wants to enter, its their and their parents problem. The government cannot control it.

Google and other websites already provides safe search feature, which will keep the user away from porn related search results. But if you search for porn, there is nobody to blame or control you. Its up to you.

I think that porn websites should not be banned in India. But if the websites do not take the necessary steps as given in the cyber law, they should be banned and case must be filed and necessary actions should be taken. Government can have a division of cyber police monitoring it.

What do you think?

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Here is the excerpts from the speeches, thanks to TOI.

“The government can place bans on websites that exclusively circulate pornography and hate speeches. However, it would not be right to place a blanket ban on all categories of websites. It is also important to distinguish between intermediaries such as Network Service Providers, website operators and individual users for the purpose of placing liability for wrongful acts.

“Websites are created and updated for many useful purposes, but they can also be used to circulate offensive content such as pornography, hate speech and defamatory materials. In many cases, the intellectual property rights of authors and artists are violated through the unauthorized circulation of their works.

“There has also been an upsurge in instances of financial fraud and cheating in relation to commercial transactions conducted online.

“There have been numerous reports of internet users receiving unsolicited e-mails which often contains obscene language and amounts to harassment. Those who post personal information about themselves on job and marriage websites or social networking websites are often at the receiving end of ‘cyber-stalking’. Women and minors who post their contact details become especially vulnerable since lumpen elements such as sex-offenders can use this information to target potential victims.”

According to the Union Minister of Law and Justice M. Veerappa Moily , “Cyber law enforcement is the need of the hour as the use of technology is increasing by leaps and bounds. We are able to optimize the use of Information Technology (IT) industry only when our cyber law is strictly enforced.

“In many cases, images or videos are created without the consent of the persons involved and they are unscrupulously circulated for commercial gain. Such practices are a blatant invasion of privacy as well as an attack on an individual’s dignity. However, there are inherent difficulties in using criminal laws to clamp down on them, so there is need of cyber law enforcement.”