Pakistan to curb porn with free filtering software
Published: 04 Jul 2003 10:18 BST
Authorities in Pakistan are banking on self-censorship to weed out Internet pornography in the conservative Muslim nation.
The country plans to soon develop content-filtering software to stop its one million Internet users from accessing adult Web sites, Reuters reported.
According to Pakistan's telecommunications officials, over 60 percent of the online population, mostly youngsters, currently visit pornographic sites. This problem is further exacerbated by the boom in Internet cafes that offer Web access for as little as $0.25 (£0.15), the report said.
The government plans to put a stop to this through the new software which users can download and install for free, said the report.
"The software will be available at the website of the Ministry of Information Technology and people will be allowed to download it without paying any money," Zahir Mohammad Khan, a senior official at state-run Pakistan Telecommunication, was quoting as saying.
The report said PTCL had blocked more than 1,800 pornographic sites earlier this year to curb what it termed as a "corrupt and evil" influence.
Besides governments, major search machines have also adopted anti-porn measures to prevent underage Net users from viewing explicit online content. For example, Google has introduced a SafeSearch feature for children to filter out links to adult Web sites.
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