Hyderabad: Free Wi-Fi spots are hubs for porn
But someone watching adult porn in private, without it being published is not a crime under the IT Act.
Hyderabad: Spots providing free Wi-Fi, affordable data and smart gadgets are facilitating porn viewership. In fact, spots providing free Wi-Fi are turning into hubs. There are numerous places in Hyderabad, including bus stops and railway stations that are Wi-Fi equipped. Thus, it indirectly aids in watching porn in public but this goes unnoticed because it is an impossible task to nab those involved.
Evidence indicates that most Indians (male and female) first encounter porn by the age of 12, and if your date of birth falls in the 1980s, the source to access porn would be video cassettes and rented VCRs; later, floppy disks and then CDs made viewing content simpler. Though not as simple as browsing porn on your smartphone now, porn content was available earlier too. Content is available at a click of the mouse or tab on the smartphone now. Superintendent of Police, Cyber Crime, U. Ram Mohan gives an insight on the act of watching porn.
“Publishing obscene content in form of text, video, graphics or in an electronic form is a crime. Secondly, viewing, possessing, watching, searching online and publishing child pornography is a crime under Section 67(A) (B) of the Information Technology Act. But someone watching adult porn in private, without it being published is not a crime under the IT Act.”
In 2017, 66 percent of online traffic was porn. “This is not only the case of free Wi-Fi but affordable data and availability of smart gadgets. A survey showed there is 3 crore porn websites available in multiple languages,” the officer added.
Porn, in general, is online content. Now there is closed porn as well. Some websites charge for the content. Closed porn also includes sharing within selective friends in form of images, videos.
Thought online content is the most sought after, offline content like CDs, SD cards etc. are still available. Even if the online content is curtailed, the market is already flooded with offline content. Countries such as Saudi Arabia and China are putting efforts to curtail online content.
The punishment for being booked under Section 67 (A) (B) of the IT Act varies between three -10 years. Recently, a man in Kolkatta was convicted for five years for posting obscene content on the social platform.