Plan To Block Porn Sites Based On Common Sense: Minister

Source: Bernama, World
Date: March 26, 2008 10:31 AM

Plan To Block Porn Sites Based On Common Sense: Minister

JAKARTA, March 26 (Bernama) - The government's plan to block porn and violence websites is based on common sense, Communications and Information Minister Mohammad Nuh said."Nobody has reason to build a nation by disseminating pornography and violence. I think nobody will agree to such notion," Indonesia's Antara news agency quoted Mohammad Nuh as saying in a press conference here on Tuesday.The press conference was called shortly after the House of Representatives (DPR) passed an information and electronic transaction bill into law earlier in the day.Under the law, anybody found guilty of providing and using pornographic sites may face a maximum of three years in prison or a fine of up to Rp1 billion.The minister said the government was resolved to block obscene sites in response to public calls on the government to minimise Internet users' access to adult content.Telematics law lecturer Edmon Makarim of the University of Indonesia (UI) said the government was directing its efforts toward minimising access to porn and violence websites.The law mostly dealt with bans on the dissemination of pornography and other such contents detrimental to the public through the Internet, he said."The aim is not to censor porn sites and the like but encourage the public to make optimum use of the Internet. Therefore, positive regulations banning the dissemination of pornography are needed," he said.The minister said the passage of the bill into law would encourage the Indonesia - Security Incident Response Team on Internet Infrastructure (ID-SIRTII) to work more effectively.The ID-SIRTII team's main task was to ensure the security of electronic transactions while blocking obscene sites was its additional task, he said.Earlier, the minister said the government planned to block all obscene sites starting April 1."Admittedly, the number of Internet users in Indonesia is relatively small, reaching around 25 million. But their number will skyrocket in May because we will provide special facilities to senior high schools across the country," he said in Surabaya recently.The special facilities given free of charge would lead to a drastic increase in the number of Internet users, he said."The special facilities will double the number of Internet users to 50 million, which is relatively small, accounting for 25 percent of the Indonesian population. But it is 20 times as much as that of Singapore or even Malaysia," he said.-- BERNAMA