Tarana vows to block porn sites
State minister for posts and telecommunications Tarana Halim has vowed to block pornographic websites.
She has directed the technical committee formed by the posts and telecommunications division (PTD) to find ways to block porn sites, both local and international ones.
Talking to BSS, Tarana Halim on Monday afternoon said the internet service providers have to block the porn sites that are being generated inside the country.
“But, for international sites, we’ve to develop a mechanism that would expose the users,” she said, adding, “So, people would refrain from logging into porn sites fearing to be exposed.”
Replying to a query whether it is possible to block all porn sites, the state minister said, “It should be kept in mind that we couldn’t block cent percent sites, but if we could block 80 percent, it would be a huge job for us.”
Earlier, on November 28, the posts and telecommunications division (PTD) formed a committee to prepare a database of the websites spreading “pornography” and “objectionable contents” in cyber space.
The committee, headed by a director general of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), is assigned to prepare a set of recommendation to thwart pornography and any ill motive in the cyber space.
Representatives of PTD, information ministry, national telecommunication monitoring centre (NTMC), internet service providers, mobile phone operators and law enforcement agencies are also in the committee.
Tarana said, “We’ve asked the committee to come up with specific technical proposal and recommendation to block the porn sites.”
She said the committee is working and would submit list of porn sites and technical proposal within 15 days from forming of the committee.
According to PTD officials, the committee would prepare a list of such websites and formulate a three-tier technical proposal to address the issue.
The three-tier proposal would include immediate, interim and final action plans.
Besides, mass awareness would also be raised to curb pornography and objectionable contents.
According to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), now the country has over 6.68 crore internet users, of which 6.30 crore users browse through mobile phone.