Home Lifestyle An Internet porn block is being proposed for South Africa

An Internet porn block is being proposed for South Africa

3 min read
23
Right to Censor

Look, let’s be honest here: We’ve all watched porn. Whether it was late night on E-TV when an Emmanuelle flick popped up or your fingers just so happened to accidentally type out p-o-r-n-h-u-b in your URL and your elbow hit the Enter key, we’ve all seen the stuff. And there’s nothing wrong with that. When you’re of the right age and of sound mind, there’s nothing to be ashamed about. It’s just porn.

Unless you’re in government, which is currently in full “WON’T ANYONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN” mode currently.

According to a report on MyBroadband, the South African Law Reform Commission (an independent advisory statutory body which was established by the South African Law Reform Commission Act) has published a discussion paper, where it proposes that internet porn should be blocked by default. The “Pornography and Children” paper recommends that the best way to protect children from porn exposure is to find a way to make certain that all electronic porn-broadcasting devices have blocks which prohibit five-knuckle shuffle content from being accessed:

The Commission provisionally recommends that legislation should comprehensively criminalise all acts of exposing children to pornography and content not suitable for children, in whatever manner, including through advertisement and enticement or by making use of misleading techniques. Giving effect to this recommendation will serve to protect both the child and the provider, though regulations will be required to provide for effective implementation.

According to the paper, this will require “Manufacturers or distributors of any technology or device that can access the Internet to ensure that default settings block access to child sexual abuse material or pornography” and “Electronic communications service providers to ensure that default settings blocks access to child sexual abuse material or pornography”.

Darryn-watches-porn
  • Manufacturers or distributors of any technology or device that can access the Internet to ensure that default settings block access to child sexual abuse material or pornography.
  • Electronic communications service providers to ensure that default settings blocks access to child sexual abuse material or pornography.

How government would even enforce these rules is beyond me, as such a plan would require everything from laptops to tablets, phones to Smart TVs to be given software that would turn them into the equivalent of Ned Flanders. Anyone wanting to legally access porn, would then have to have their name added to a registry for when the blocks are removed and boy oh boy there’s no way that such a plan could backfire, right?

It’s once again a noble goal to want to protect children, that is being proposed through woefully inadequate means. Much like the content filter that the FPB wants to apply to the internet, this porn block is the equivalent of a child choking to death on a piece of steak and then making ownership of cows illegal for everyone else.

This proposal also comes (Ha) hot on the heels of the current porn brouhaha in the United Kingdom, as the British will be clamping down on adult-only content from July 15 when internet service providers have to force users to confirm their age if they want to access a website that would allow them to Jack their beanstalk.

Last Updated: May 15, 2019

23 Comments

  1. Why don’t they just go full Old Skool Suid-Afrika and bring back the sensuur raad.

    Tell me again how our current government is not trying its best to overreach and cement authoritarian power?

    Kids under 12 are being raped and molested all over the show, it is being reported. Nothing is happening because SAPS rather spend hundreds of millions defending themselves in court for breaking the law than actually enforce the law. Court system is a joke.

    But sure yes porn is where the problem lies so lets start implementing our equivalent of The Great Firewall of China to protect the children.

    Reply

    • The D

      May 15, 2019 at 13:11

      Bring back nipple censorship and place some stars on those areolas.

      Reply

    • RinceThis

      May 15, 2019 at 13:32

      Today you are speaking so much truth!

      Reply

  2. Dresden

    May 15, 2019 at 12:09

    Darryn-watches-porn.jpg ???

    Reply

    • The D

      May 15, 2019 at 12:16

      That’s DOCTOR Darryn.

      Reply

      • Pariah

        May 15, 2019 at 12:16

        Well now we know what else you’re into, besides the batporn.

        Reply

  3. Nikola

    May 15, 2019 at 12:16

    They can take our land but never our PORN!!!!

    Reply

  4. PoisonedBelial

    May 15, 2019 at 13:45

    Fuck it, I’ll just make my own then.

    Anyone game?

    Reply

    • HvR

      May 16, 2019 at 01:19

      Drop Kaas a call

      Reply

  5. Gavin Mannion

    May 15, 2019 at 11:51

    Sky internet just implemented a transparent DNS on my connection in preparation for this which overrode my custom DNS settings. They claimed it was an accident but it’s 100% them preparing to hijack my internet for the porn pass legislation

    I’ve made them roll the changes back off my router but it took 14 days so I had to use a VPN for that time to access whatever I wanted because this sort of blocking is idiotic and can’t work

    Reply

    • HvR

      May 16, 2019 at 01:19

      Yeah man show them that you will watch your brony porn where you want when you want to

      Reply

  6. Pariah

    May 15, 2019 at 11:51

    This is why we need younger people in parliament, people who actually understand how technology works. And how tenacious kids are – because kids are tech savvy and will find a way to bypass those blocks in no time at all, should they want to.

    Reply

    • Humantouch

      May 15, 2019 at 14:11

      This was my exact thought on this, younger people will find a way to bypass this in no time.

      Reply

  7. Guz

    May 15, 2019 at 12:09

    With a bit of know how this should be easy to bypass. Laughs in VPN

    Reply

  8. Llama In The Rift

    May 15, 2019 at 17:03

    ill just start downloading everything i can and sell to my friends , not that were in any danger here in Namibia but just that i may one day say ” You don’t qualify cause your South African, how does that feel Geoff huh? How does it feel!!

    Reply

  9. Jmes

    July 18, 2019 at 08:41

    Thanks for the article. This is one more, just a bit recent article. It shows five different ways how to block porn sites https://medium.com/@harrysilvers62/how-to-block-porn-sites-e7c3ffdf2a7.

    Reply

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