Tough to block all porn sites: Centre tells Supreme Court

In a petition filed through advocate Vijay Panjwani saying that the absence of Internet laws encourages people to watch porn videos and over 20 crore porn videos or clippings are freely available in the market, which have been directly downloaded from the Internet or copied from video CDs, the Centre informed the Court that “"If we block one site, other crops up. There are also hidden servers in the country and it is difficult to control them. All social media are being operated from foreign land,"

Additional Solicitor General L Nageshwar Rao, also submitted that parental control software should be used to keep such material on internet away from children.

The Bench, during the proceedings termed the problem as “hydra headed”. The Bench headed by Chief Justice Lodha expressed its view that some solution to the problem has to come out and said “Human mind is very fertile and technology runs faster then law. Law has to keep pace with technology.”

It also went on to say "Law, technology and governance have to be synthesised to control pornographic materials on Internet."And "There are rules to control such sites and some method has to be found out".

The petition filed by an Indore based advocate, states that pornographic sites should be banned as they were one of the major causes behind crime against women.

The Supreme had earlier on November 18, 2013 issued notice to the Department of Telecommunication (DoT), asking its repose as to how to block websites having pornographic content, particularly those having child pornography. 

The Court also directed the Centre to place contents of the petition before an Advisory Committee set up under Section 88 of IT Act so that it can recommend methods to control the issue.