Islamabad
Despite having clear indications about the growing number of youngsters visiting illicit websites from home and internet cafes, it is sad to see that both the government and society has no comprehensive plan or policy in mind to control the monster.
Whether the report published in international and national media about our country ranking first in visiting porn sites, was accurate or not, it certainly gave all think tanks, government and the society as a whole, a wake up call to do something serious about the issue before it is too late. Unfortunately, the problem remained ignored and like a pigeon, we closed our eyes so that we cannot see the enemy. It has indeed become our favourite strategy to solve the problems.
According to a research conducted by Save the Children Sweden, children are found at great risk of exposure to pornography within and out side their homes. Book shops, internet cafes, mini cinemas and CD and video shops provide easy access to children to access pornography. The study also found some anecdotal evidence of the involvement of children in the production of pornographic material. It mentions that in locally produced easily available ‘mujras’ record young girls stripping.
“All this material is easily available around us on internet, CDs and even on mobile phones with no check whatsoever,” said Syed Mahmood Asgher, Country Director Save the Children Sweden, a staunch advocate of bringing check on the source of pornography especially in the internet cafes.
According to him, there are thousands of unregistered internet cafes in urban and rural areas that provide all kind of privacy for such activities. “These cafes have closed door cabins with benches for two adults and bolt from inside. Our research found the history of only 7 per cent of such facilities free of pornographic activities and that too in urban areas,” he said while pointing out the one hardly finds such facility with clean record in less developed cities.
The researchers hired for the study found boys as young as eight years watching porn in internet cafes. The report says that boys aged below eighteen years, especially 12-16 years are the largest customer groups of these cafes, comprising at least half of the total clientele. The study says that at these cafes, children are not only exposed to pornographic material, but the environment encourages their sense of exploration at a very vulnerable age. Families of these children are usually unaware of their activities.
The findings of the research indicate that children view pornography, as a source of entertainment, especially due to easy access and cheap availability. To cater to the need of uneducated children, the cafe owners make icons at the desktop that directly take the child or a teenager to the world of pornography.
While in home, the awareness about the use of personal computers and rating systems for TV viewing was found to be low amongst the parents. The report shows that parents rarely interact with children on these issues and believe that good moral upbringing keeps children away from perusing pornography.
Moreover, in the case of children living on the street, adults lure and force children to view pornography at mini cinemas. All street children in the report sample were found to be exposed to pornography. These mini cinemas charge nominal sum for an entire porn movie and the street children are commonly found with adult day wagers or migrant workers to be lying down and viewing these films in the cinema. The CD shops were found to be easily accessible to children and it is reported that young boys (aged 13 to 14 years) often visit them in groups to buy porn. Such material is more in demand in lower socio-economic neighbourhood. Leaving aside a few good book stores, the shopkeepers categorise books containing pornography under ‘medical books.’ Soft porn magazines are easily available to students, who are the eager buyers. According to shopkeepers, about 60 per cent of their sales are dependent on pornography, selling both to adults and children.
The report says that weak role played by the law enforcement authorities is a major factor in promoting exposure of children to pornography. Similarly the lack of adequate legislation that promotes a holistic protective environment needs to be addressed immediately. “The sporadic efforts taken by the police in taking action against closed cabin internet cafes are not of much help to protect children,” the report further mentions.
Mahmood says that the government was successful in providing easy access to internet in the early 2002, but no policy was drafted to keep check over those who will open centres for illicit activates in the name of internet facilities. “We raised the issue before then Federal Minister for Science and Technology Ataur Rehman but he said that it will happen only in start and will vanish with time,” he said.
He stressed for defining proper regulatory mechanisms and registration procedures for these facilities. “If properly implemented, only a few measures like banning the cabin system and putting a restriction that a child below 12 should be accompanied by his parent can control the problem to great extent at least in net case,” he said.
He said that governments of many countries like Saudi Arabia and UAE have installed filters for porn website. “It is not possible to control all such websites, but official and social rejection can deter many from hitting such material on net.” He said that there are millions of such websites and more than 10,000 are added per day on the net. On the other hand, the officials at the Ministry of Information and Technology said that any decision to put filter on the web can be taken only at the highest level. They said that the government does not have any policy to regulate easy access to such material. “Now when the issue is highlighted, the aspect of drafting a policy will be discussed in the Inter-ministerial Committee,” said Mudassir Hussain, Coordinator for Inter-ministerial Committee that takes decision on blocking any website.
The committee that includes high level officials from Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Ministry of Religious Affairs, Interior Ministry, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, National Telecommunication and Information Technology Security Board and federal agencies has so far blocked 12,000 websites after complaints they received from different departments, sometimes even from individuals. The committee is mandated to preserve and safeguard national security, communal harmony and cohesion, and to prevent religious discourse. He said that the Ministry of Information and Technology is not a censorship authority. “Laws are already there to keep check on such activates but the problem is of implementation,” he said adding that it is the collective responsibility of community and the government to keep check over these elements in their area.
Despite having clear indications about the growing number of youngsters visiting illicit websites from home and internet cafes, it is sad to see that both the government and society has no comprehensive plan or policy in mind to control the monster.
Whether the report published in international and national media about our country ranking first in visiting porn sites, was accurate or not, it certainly gave all think tanks, government and the society as a whole, a wake up call to do something serious about the issue before it is too late. Unfortunately, the problem remained ignored and like a pigeon, we closed our eyes so that we cannot see the enemy. It has indeed become our favourite strategy to solve the problems.
According to a research conducted by Save the Children Sweden, children are found at great risk of exposure to pornography within and out side their homes. Book shops, internet cafes, mini cinemas and CD and video shops provide easy access to children to access pornography. The study also found some anecdotal evidence of the involvement of children in the production of pornographic material. It mentions that in locally produced easily available ‘mujras’ record young girls stripping.
“All this material is easily available around us on internet, CDs and even on mobile phones with no check whatsoever,” said Syed Mahmood Asgher, Country Director Save the Children Sweden, a staunch advocate of bringing check on the source of pornography especially in the internet cafes.
According to him, there are thousands of unregistered internet cafes in urban and rural areas that provide all kind of privacy for such activities. “These cafes have closed door cabins with benches for two adults and bolt from inside. Our research found the history of only 7 per cent of such facilities free of pornographic activities and that too in urban areas,” he said while pointing out the one hardly finds such facility with clean record in less developed cities.
The researchers hired for the study found boys as young as eight years watching porn in internet cafes. The report says that boys aged below eighteen years, especially 12-16 years are the largest customer groups of these cafes, comprising at least half of the total clientele. The study says that at these cafes, children are not only exposed to pornographic material, but the environment encourages their sense of exploration at a very vulnerable age. Families of these children are usually unaware of their activities.
The findings of the research indicate that children view pornography, as a source of entertainment, especially due to easy access and cheap availability. To cater to the need of uneducated children, the cafe owners make icons at the desktop that directly take the child or a teenager to the world of pornography.
While in home, the awareness about the use of personal computers and rating systems for TV viewing was found to be low amongst the parents. The report shows that parents rarely interact with children on these issues and believe that good moral upbringing keeps children away from perusing pornography.
Moreover, in the case of children living on the street, adults lure and force children to view pornography at mini cinemas. All street children in the report sample were found to be exposed to pornography. These mini cinemas charge nominal sum for an entire porn movie and the street children are commonly found with adult day wagers or migrant workers to be lying down and viewing these films in the cinema. The CD shops were found to be easily accessible to children and it is reported that young boys (aged 13 to 14 years) often visit them in groups to buy porn. Such material is more in demand in lower socio-economic neighbourhood. Leaving aside a few good book stores, the shopkeepers categorise books containing pornography under ‘medical books.’ Soft porn magazines are easily available to students, who are the eager buyers. According to shopkeepers, about 60 per cent of their sales are dependent on pornography, selling both to adults and children.
The report says that weak role played by the law enforcement authorities is a major factor in promoting exposure of children to pornography. Similarly the lack of adequate legislation that promotes a holistic protective environment needs to be addressed immediately. “The sporadic efforts taken by the police in taking action against closed cabin internet cafes are not of much help to protect children,” the report further mentions.
Mahmood says that the government was successful in providing easy access to internet in the early 2002, but no policy was drafted to keep check over those who will open centres for illicit activates in the name of internet facilities. “We raised the issue before then Federal Minister for Science and Technology Ataur Rehman but he said that it will happen only in start and will vanish with time,” he said.
He stressed for defining proper regulatory mechanisms and registration procedures for these facilities. “If properly implemented, only a few measures like banning the cabin system and putting a restriction that a child below 12 should be accompanied by his parent can control the problem to great extent at least in net case,” he said.
He said that governments of many countries like Saudi Arabia and UAE have installed filters for porn website. “It is not possible to control all such websites, but official and social rejection can deter many from hitting such material on net.” He said that there are millions of such websites and more than 10,000 are added per day on the net. On the other hand, the officials at the Ministry of Information and Technology said that any decision to put filter on the web can be taken only at the highest level. They said that the government does not have any policy to regulate easy access to such material. “Now when the issue is highlighted, the aspect of drafting a policy will be discussed in the Inter-ministerial Committee,” said Mudassir Hussain, Coordinator for Inter-ministerial Committee that takes decision on blocking any website.
The committee that includes high level officials from Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Ministry of Religious Affairs, Interior Ministry, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, National Telecommunication and Information Technology Security Board and federal agencies has so far blocked 12,000 websites after complaints they received from different departments, sometimes even from individuals. The committee is mandated to preserve and safeguard national security, communal harmony and cohesion, and to prevent religious discourse. He said that the Ministry of Information and Technology is not a censorship authority. “Laws are already there to keep check on such activates but the problem is of implementation,” he said adding that it is the collective responsibility of community and the government to keep check over these elements in their area.