20 thousand porn sites blocked: NTA

Kathmandu / Oct 1: Nepal Telecommunication Authority has informed that it has already blocked 20 thousand porn sites till date. Purushottam Khanal, the senior director informed on Monday that the regulatory body has issued a directorial order to Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Network Service Providers (NSPs) and Voice Service Providers (VOIPs) to block the pornographic content sites.

According to Khanal, in Nepal, users have easy access to around three hundred thousand to four hundred thousand porn sites. The press statement released by the NTA informed that the authority is collecting data and gradually blocking the sexual content sites. Khanal maintained that till now the NTA has not faced any serious issues in course of this additional task.

The government had issued a circular to all telecommunication and internet service providers via NTA to ban the propagation and dissemination of pornographic and sexual contents through any medium.

It decided to ban pornographic contents in line with Article 121 of the Criminal Code Act 2017 which has forbidden the exchange, publication and broadcasting of pornographic, sexual and vulgar contents.

The ministry informed that it decided to announce the ban after noticing that easy access to such vulgar contents through social networking sites had started disturbing social harmony in the country.

The ministry maintained that promotion of pornographic contents has been abetting sexual violence and encouraging aberration in the society.