It's impossible to rein-in porn

Cyber crime experts say sex on the Internet cannot be checked as nobody holds all the keys

Cyber crime experts say sex on the Internet cannot be checked as nobody holds all the keys

Is it really possible to censor the content on Internet? Is there a way by which a particular set of websites can be taken off the worldwide network?



MiD DAY posed these questions to the one of the best minds in the business of virtual world after Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan called for a ban on websites that "exclusively circulate pornography".
Experts said it was "almost impossible". They said the problem deals with both the lackadaisical attitude of the government and the vast scope of the Internet.

Long process
"Government has already banned so many websites but the procedure is so long that it fails to make any impact. Achieving cent per cent ban on a website is almost impossible. To ban a website, the government has to request the server that hosts the website. In most cases, websites that are afraid of being censored are hosted on foreign servers to avoid the government diktat," said Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) president Rajesh Charria.

Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), the government body responsible for implementing ban on a website, also said that websites hosted on foreign servers are beyond their reach. "There is technology issue to impose cent per cent ban. We can block a website with in India but the main challenge is to ban a website which is located outside Indian territory," CERT Director Gulshan Rai told MiD DAY.

Foreign hand
Noted cyber crime expert Sunny Vaghela also pointed out that once a website is banned in India, it goes on to be hosted by a foreign server and then it is beyond "our each".

"The recent example is toon porn magazine Savita Bhabhi, which was banned by government but I could have still accessed it through a proxy server. Moreover, the government bans a name as in the case of Savita Bhabhi they blocked www.savitabhabhi.com but the same content resurfaced on www.kirtu.com. No legal action can be taken against them as they are beyond our country's jurisdiction," he said.