In response to a Public Interest Litigation filed in the Supreme Court of India, the Government recently submitted an affidavit wherein, as reported in the Press on 28 Aug 2014, the government has stated that ‘it is impossible to block the pornographic websites in the Internet and if one website is blocked, hundred sites come up’. It sounds as though, the problem cannot be solved. In fact, this problem has a techno-legal solution. Technologically it is possible like having a national level firewall, web-filters, content monitors etc (and in the long run going for an Indian operating systems for computers, our own anti virus, indigenous firewall and above all, our own servers to host) and legally it is feasible to have control over such websites and take speedier action in blocking that would serve as a deterrent to many more coming up. While it is true that the government cannot be expected to take care of all security initiatives like blocking pornographic websites etc , it cannot be digested that the government cannot wash its hands off, saying that there is no solution to the problem.
Without going into the wider ramifications of the issue and the technical feasibility and legal remedies available, let us look at the issue from a citizen’s perspective. From a social angle, it is the duty of Internet users especially the elders and parents to have watch on the websites their siblings visit, to ensure that the computer systems are kept in the open halls wherein the parents too can look at the monitors and have constant interaction with the children on their likes and dislikes in the Internet. Technologically, initiatives like child-lock URL filters, web-filters, PC fire-walls with content filtering etc can be put in place.