This recommendation was made by the DPP (Directeur des Poursuites Publiques) a few days back in his monthly newsletter issued in January 2013 but strangely, very little has been said on this topic, most probably because the subject is still a taboo. Mr Satyajit Boolell has suggested that access to pornographic sites should be restricted by Internet Service Providers (Mauritius Telecom for example) so that kids cannot access them without prior authorized access.
In this issue of his newletter, he wrote, I quote:
“The Mauritian Internet service provider must block those sites or make them as inaccessible as possible to internet users.“
…
“Cases of sexual abuse that land on my desk involving children are rife with examples of the child being exposed to hardcore pornography downloaded from the net.“
…
“I am not aware whether there are statistics available of how often those websites are sought by Mauritians. I am not aware whether we as a nation, we are concerned that the exposure of our children to these websites are likely to affect their natural sexual development or that they may end up becoming sexually depraved teenagers. I am not aware how much of the Mauritian currency is used to pay pornographic sites. But I know that we cannot wait any longer before, we as a nation, take concerted action.“
Suggestions
Going further, he wrote:
Adults may be given a special password for certain prohibited sites which shall be totally out of reach for children.“
And also said that banks could be given the responsibility to scan the payments made to ensure that they are owned by adults.
Your thoughts?
While I don’t deny that it can actually be a good thing to protect the younger kids, I still have a few questions:
- Will it be like applying for a driving permit once you blow your 18th candle?
or what will be the age restrictions? - Won’t we actually creating another legal issue in the society whereby we will need to deal with those intelligent geniuses who have been able to “hack” or tamper into the system?
- Isn’t it more logic to educate the younger ones appropriately to remove this taboo?
- Does it also mean that even adults won’t have access to “certain prohibited sites” quoted above?
- Who will define and manage the list of prohibited sites as well as the criteria established?
But wait, does living in a democracy give me the legal right to discuss a point made by the DPP? I have absolutely no idea!
Don’t forget, there are free iphone skins and some stickers to get freely. Click on the image below:
Yashvinblogs 
Censorship is a difficult one to implement in a democracy. If you go this route then you risk upsetting your electorate. It is a pity that the DPP have not done a serious study of the problem with firm statistics. Personally I have no doubt that there is a grave problem. I remember many years back using a young college students PC and being horrified at the browsers history list which showed many South African porn sites. So if we look at the access by very young children should we not be looking at parental responsibility? There is software available for security and parental control. However, in my experience many parents are not IT literate and therefore not always aware of what their kids are viewing. The DPP is talking about child abuse and the relation to porn sites, however, criminal activity will always by-pass any initiatives in place. Quite frankly, looking at the resources available in MRU I do not see that the authorities will be able to initiate anything of consequence. The primary action will be one of educating both parents and children. Throwing the responsibility on ISPs alone is not the answer to the problem.
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“But wait, does living in a democracy give me the legal right to discuss a point made by the DPP?”
A democra… what???
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Dapres lorde Li in trouve so piti p surf for xn xx.com
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It will not work at all! Wait, banning a website? I have never heard such thing like this in effect when you cannot do it because every method the government will use, a simply proxy application will bypass it. So what is the use?
Moreover, I have not understood about the password thing, will the authority give password to elders to watch porn? If yes, these kids can get it as well. It is just a question of giving them the password.
Moreover, suppose in my house, there are adults and children who use computers. If government is banning porn, how the adult will get access then? What will happen if both are using the same computers?
Finally, the only solution to solve this is sexual education. Tell the parents to educate their kids that’s all. Educating kids on this matter is very easy. When mothers can educate their daughters about menstrual period, why not on porn? It is not something complicated to explain!
It is stupid way to solve this issue damn it, the government must go and invest more on sex education. These kids are more intelligent that these IT guys who work for the police and government!
A real threat to our democracy as well…
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I wonder how many people will be able to read this completely 😛
C vrai, the responsibility is not of the ISP alone. It is all about parenting. However nowadays there are not many parents who have the time to spend with their children. What should really be done in this case? At least someone will need to take the initiatives. If parents do not have the time to teach their children, to protect and guide their children, then someone else will have to do it. So one solution is what you have just said in the post. It is not a perfect solution of course, even this might have its side effects, but is there a better solution?
Frankly the situation I just mentioned we are in, I do not find anything better for the time being.
And I don’t think there is any school in this whole world who will teach students about sexuality. There is no teacher who will be able to train a child about how to handle pornography.
The best teacher here is still a parent. You know why? Because naturally it is only a parent who really understands his child best. He is supposed to be the closest person and the only person the child can trust. Well of course if the parent has taken time to be with his child. Mais nous pena ça beaucoup zordi. We are all moving so fast that we forget that we have a child who depends on us. We bring him to the world and let him wander all his life. This is where we are really heading towards nowadays. 🙂
The first duty is always of a parent to guide the child in the right path.
Another thing maybe the atmosphere we live in, what we hear around us, this is how we become. Now if a child is surrounded by abuses, all he sees is beatings, the people around him only behave badly. What will he learn in the end?
If an adult, will behave like a pervert in front of kids and they will see him laughing and enjoying. What will they learn? A child is influenced a lot by his environment. So I guess even this is something that needs to be taken into consideration.
So I also guess in a way it should start with us, so that whenever we come across a young child we set an example through our language, our behaviors through respect.
Remember this always: What we are seeing today, is not the root cause, it is simply the consequence of a previous root cause. You can call it the domino, or ripple effect. Well, I believe that there is a solution to the problems we face today which very few will agree to.
I might have gone out of topic a bit, but still it is related to the post. 🙂
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I did 🙂
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I think the best solution would be that all ISP block access to all pornographic websites by default, unless the customer wants no restriction. A low symbolic additional fee of a few rupees can be “TAXED” on those customers. The money can then be used on awareness campaigns to protect the children.
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I don’t find it logic to impose a tax on content, even it is a “low symbolic” fee
On the same logic: So tomorrow, you will put a tax on Youtube because the person chooses not to watch The Navin TV?
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Gotta agree with that. So what, I just turned 18 and I need to pay
additional fees for content? LOL. Restrict Google while we are at it in
that case. You can’t tax content. Heard of SOPA and PIPA? That should be
enough
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Great progress for our “Cyber Island” *Sarcasm*. So they want you to sign contracts and papers so you can watch porn? Seriously, this country is no where to becoming any cyber island. Protecting kids from porn sites is as easy as buying a parenting filter software (or internet security which comes with filters for porn sites) and these cost about Rs1000 per year. That what should be taught to the public not some ridicule and mediocre stuff like that. Meh, I feel sorry to live here. I have some weird feeling that youtube and google were having downtimes on Monday due to that. LOL
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*cough* *cough* some tests which went wrong and all blame goes to Google. Oh! GOOGLE, can you imagine 😛
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Hi, I know I don’t often comment.
This seems all wrong to me. For those who have seen “Bowling for Columbine” they might remember Marylin Manson’s interview. The shortcut was: kids with guns firing at school, MM is responsible for that. Here we have the same thing : porn, Google/ISPs/Anybody is responsible for that. Shortcut: Google/ISPs/Anybody is responsible for child abuse in Mauritius.
Now, let’s leave hypocrisy aside. Porn on the Internet? Boy, I left college in Mauritius in 1995, do or say what you like, even at that time porn magazines and videos were running from form 3 to form 6 classes at least. And now the DPP is crying over the availability of porn content over the web? In which country has he been living for the past 20 years… you could get any porn movie at your local video club all around the island. Stop being hypocrite!
Want to do something about that? EDUCATE! Sexual education and even some adult education is needed. “Prend nissa” is fun when you’re a teenager, “prend nissa” when you’re an adult is the bad example because adults push the limits further and further… till abuse!
I am a father and I know that it is my reponsibility towards my children to educate them through this delicate subject but I want to be the one explaining sex to my kids rather than some tabooed or narrow-minded pervert I don’t know.
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http://techbeat.com/2013/02/online-porn-may-be-banned-in-iceland/
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Thanks for the share…
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Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
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This country is becoming a joke by each passing day!
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