Vulcan Post recently reported that the Philippine government is making some plans to block cyber-pornography in the country.
In an update on the subject, it appears that only child pornography will be blocked in the country.
To achieve this, the National Telecommunications commission has instructed Internet Service Providers to install softwares that can identify and filter porn content. However, since only child pornography will be regulated, there appears to be a problem as to how it will be filtered. While the majority of content from adult websites contain just that, there are still some child pornographic content that is present in minute amounts. If this is the case, the entire website will be filtered out because of that one single instance of child pornography.
Another problem which arises is how the filtering software will determine if the subject in the adult content is a “minor”. In the Philippines, you are considered a minor if you are under 18 years old. However, there are situations where one is unable to differentiates a 16-year old from a 19-year old.
For websites controlled by operators, the age of the content’s subject can possibly be determined. However, those adult websites with user generated content will become prey to this algorithm, since just one child pornographic content published will tag the entire website as guilty of violating the government’s anti-child porn memorandum.
Also, seemingly harmless websites can become targets as well if the software is not implemented properly. For example, what may look like an interesting blog about doodles might have a commenter commenting and posting an image that has child pornography in it. In this case, the innocent blog will become victim of the memorandum, hence having its access blocked by the software.
Internet censorship is something foreign to the Philippines. Some countries opted to filter out content in the world wide web that they deemed “unnecessary” for their citizens. Just like how China blocks certain websites that appear to spread propaganda against the country’s ruling party while North Korea blocks almost anything on the Internet.
In the Philippines, I don’t think we have that kind of instances yet wherein there is a republic act or a memorandum not allowing us to view something on the Internet.
Let’s wait and see how Filipinos will react to this minimal level of Internet censorship in the country. Even before its implementation, Filipino netizens already have some reactions posted on Twitter:
NTC says "only child-porn sites" .So guys, don't make a big fuss about it .Unless you are into child porn http://t.co/p9LmAINwkU
— kapitanluffy ? (@kapitanluffy) March 17, 2014
Re: Child porn: I absolutely agree NTC should block it but it's only a band-aid. Real issue are those in PHL producing/trafficking kids.
— Audrey Domasian (@audreydomasian) March 16, 2014
"The NTC has criminalized all porn. Yes, child porn is undisputedly repugnant and illegal. But all other porn?"
— Tonyo Cruz (@tonyocruz) March 15, 2014
Does your country have some form of censorship on the Internet?
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