2/24/2019 Is banning porn websites in India justified?

Is banning porn websites in India justi ed?

3.6K

 Introduction:
With the explosion in the internet bandwidth and accessibility in India, one more thing
has become accessible in the country – pornographic material (mostly digital). One of the
world’s most famous porn website PornHub, has come out with a shocking statistic! India
is now its fastest growing and world’s third largest consumer of porn, coming only after
USA and UK. Wow! And this is just from the world’s biggest porn community. There is
several other options that are available online to access and consume this kind of material.
Putting a number on this would be a huge task, and if did so, we won’t be surprised if India
is not the biggest consumer of porn in the world. But is this healthy? It is correct? Several
studies suggest di erent answers to these questions. But rest assured, Article 21 (Right to
personal liberty) gives the right to a person to watch such content con ned within the
four walls of his room. So is banning pornographic websites, even legally correct?

Current Scenario:
On July 30th 2015, the government passed an interim order for telecom operators and
Internet service providers to ban 857 pornographic websites. The order was over-ruled
and reinstated multiple times during the course of the previous years. Recently, the most
successfully running network ‘Reliance Jio’ has banned multiple porn websites on its
server, gathering angry comments from its customers on social media. While people may
have found a way around it, almost every other network is following suite and secretly
shutting down porn websites from an assorted list of 800 websites. However, as it
happens every time India decides to ban a few websites, the whole process again seems to
be secretive and there is no clarity on what is happening where. As is the case, recording
and production of pornographic material is banned in India. However one has the liberty
to watch it in a private place. So enforcing this ban, on the name of curbing rising sexual
violence in the country seems a frivolous move.
In the news:

July 30 2015: The Indian government ordered the country’s internet service providers to
block access to 857 websites that were found to host pornographic content, citing a threat
to morality and decency. After an uproar on social media from citizens, as well as
confusion and resistance from ISPs themselves, India’s Ministry of Electronics and IT
reversed the order less than one week later.


https://www.career2nextorbit.com/article/747/is-banning-porn-websites-in-india-justified 1/8
2/24/2019 Is banning porn websites in India justified?

October 25 2018: Following an order of Uttarakhand High Court, the Department of

Telecom (DoT) directed Internet service providers to block 827 porn websites. Networks
such as Jio, Vodafone and Airtel took quick action on the order and banned numerous
websites in the given list. Users of the network took to social media to protest the ban,
citing their frustration and anger with the order.
October 30 2018: As the Indian government moves to again censor pornographic websites,
users are trying to work around the ban. Pornhub, world’s largest porn community set up
a mirror website for users to provide them with all their content.
Yes, it is justi ed to ban Porn in India
The government is concerned about the rising content that relates to child
pornography, child abuse, bestiality and related material in these porn websites.
With the explosion of internet services, it was becoming di cult to regulate the
material, making it easily accessible to underage children.
Hence, the harsh step. Porn, in general, is unhealthy for the mental health of a
human being.
It gives unrealistic expectations from an act of intimacy, in uencing the mental and
emotional health of someone. Lots of pornographic content produced in India was
without consent. The rise in such material is alarming and raises questions on the
safety and privacy of people.

No, it is not justi ed to ban Porn in India

What one does within the con nes of his personal space, should be his choice. As
long he is not breaking any other law, one should be ne with it.
Several studies have indicated towards the bene ts of watching porn as a stress
reliever. With such a poor sex ratio in the country, a person should be able to gratify
himself/herself without the society intervening in it.
The Porn industry is big! No matter how much one tries to ban it, the industry or the
people will nd a way around it.

Passing such orders will only encourage people to access services such as VPNs and
Dark Web to access pornographic content, making them more prone to cyber-
attacks.
The ban on online porn in this era is antiquated. It is rightly said, “The more one
tries to ban something, more it goes viral”.
Conclusion: While the government thinks from the view-point that banning porn will help
bring down the number of violators engaged in it, the truth cannot be far away. In a
country where sex is seen as a taboo, it is more important to raise awareness about safe
sex and educate the youngsters about sexual activities, rather than a showcase and
ine ective ban. Watching porn might not be good, but it is much important and rather
necessary to teach what is right, rather than just stopping all things bad.
Links for further review:

https://www.career2nextorbit.com/article/747/is-banning-porn-websites-in-india-justified 2/8
2/24/2019 Is banning porn websites in India justified?

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/pa9jvk/pornhub-mirror-site-india-porn-
ban-vpns (https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/pa9jvk/pornhub-mirror-site-india-
porn-ban-vpns)
https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/jio-bans-popular-porn-websites-
like-pornhub-in-india-likely-after-dot-order-users-cry-foul-on-reddit-1375046-2018-
10-25 (https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/jio-bans-popular-porn-websites-
like-pornhub-in-india-likely-after-dot-order-users-cry-foul-on-reddit-1375046-2018-10-
25)
http://racolblegal.com/is-porn-ban-in-india-justi ed (http://racolblegal.com/is-porn-
ban-in-india-justified)
 

You may also like the following articles:

EXPECTED GD-WAT TOPICS (/search/articles/Expected GD-WAT Topics) GD TOPICS (/search/articles/GD

Topics)

DID YOU FIND WHAT YOU WERE LOOKING FOR?

Please login to share the topic you would like to read about. We will share the article on this topic in
three days.
Click HERE to login. (/login)

RELATED POSTS

(/article/611/smart-cities-catalyze-rural-to-urban-migration)
Smart Cities catalyze rural to urban migration (/article/611/smart-cities-catalyze-rural-to-urban-
migration)


https://www.career2nextorbit.com/article/747/is-banning-porn-websites-in-india-justified 3/8