Uttar Pradesh police have recently said that under the new initiative implemented by the state, the police department will keep a check on the people who browse for pornographic content in the state online.
It is said that those who will be caught surfing the same, will be warned and their digital data will be taken into consideration as well.
The department says that this is an initiative to reduce crime against women since several cases were seen to be inspired by pornographic content.
This is not the first time that India has seen a restriction in the browsing of pornographic content. In fact, since 2015, the Department of Telecom has asked network service providers to ban more than 800 porn websites in an effort to reduce cybercrime.
What Is The Initiative By UP Police?
As per the protocol, web users will initially get a pop-up alert upon browsing a pornographic website via the 1090 Women Powerline wing service of UP Police. The message will supposedly be a warning to the user saying that their data will be recorded by the police.
The department has also planned a social media awareness drive on websites like Facebook and Instagram to make people more aware of the ‘service’. A senior police official said that the move is important to “monitor the adolescents who are highly vulnerable to such content affecting their mind and behaviour.”
The ‘digital chakravyuh’ will make use of techniques like predictive analysis, psychometric profiling, and creating awareness among youngsters to prevent crimes against women.
Is This The Only Solution?
Pornographic content is very easily available on the internet. For several years, the people of the country have been actively saying that porn websites and their easy accessibility are one of the main reasons that crimes against women in the country are increasing.
While it surely does play a factor, the root of the problems is not porn websites.
Also Read: Why Did Pornhub Delete More Than 10 Million Videos Off Its Site?
In 2017, Dehradun High Court asked network providers to take down 857 porn websites after a 15-year old girl was raped by her seniors, inspired by porn videos.
While it cannot be denied that easy access to porn is a problem the country needs to tackle, we are forgetting the deep roots that patriarchy has laid into society.
Sexual crimes against women are still very much there even after the country banned several porn websites. Moreover, watching porn as such is not unhealthy unless and until it leads to an obsession.
India has always considered the topics of sex and sexuality a taboo and thus has never had a positive outlook towards pornographic content.
While many also browse through porn in a very ethical and moral sense, keeping a tab on one’s browsing history is definitely an invasion of privacy. While the move by the police department is lauded, people are failing to look at the invasion of privacy in this case.
Especially with rising concerns of privacy in lieu of WhatsApp’s new policy, Indians have surely taken a stand for their privacy. But it’s ironic how any move related to curbing sexual freedom is not considered to be an invasion of privacy.
It is time we understand that not all crimes stem from pornographic content. It is the ideology of the people that needs to be changed. People must be educated to browse such content in a healthy manner rather than making it a taboo.
While the intention of the UP police department is definitely to keep women safe, they must also understand that tracking browsing data and invading the privacy of the people is not the way to stop these crimes. What do you think about sexual freedom in India? Let us know by commenting below!
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: India Today, Deccan Herald, News 18
Find the Blogger: @AishuPoshu
This post is tagged under: UP Police; Uttar Pradesh Police; 1090 Women Workline; UP 1090; Digital chakravyuh; Porn ban; Porn ban in India; Monitor pornographic content; Privacy invasion; whatsapp privacy concern; Porn Ban 2017; Women’s security; Patriarchy; Is porn the reason for cybercrime; is cybercrime increasing because of porn; why is UP police monitoring data; warning for watching porn; does porn encourage abusive sex; network operators ban porn in India; sex as taboo; sexual freedom curbed
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Talking about sex watching porn has always been a taboo in India but as it’s said in following article, watching porn Or not is a personal point of view and government monitoring a person’s browsing history is a clear case breach of privacy. If people are educated towards how they should treat women in the society rather than deploying money and man power in stopping them from watching porn as it’s waste because people will start finding alternative ways to watch porn as it is totally impossible for the government to search and scan every electronic device in search of adultery content, government should educate people than forcing them in search for ideas to watch porn. According to UP government it’s for upliftment of women conditions in the state under MISSION SHAKTI but what if you find that women in india watch more porn in compare of any other country in this world. The figures will astonish you that in past years it’s an increase of more than 120% women watching porn in India. How will government punish women who are watching porn in India? It not the people watching porn are wrong it’s the uneducated dirty minded people whom we have to stop.
This is probably the most stupid analogy an IPS officer can promulgate, that watching porn can make people so insane that they can commit Rape like henious thing. It can be one of the reason but for 1 in a lakh case you can’t put everyone on surveillance, Here it looks like i am defending rapists but it is certainly not cause we see that all these OTT Platforms show soft pornography content. Why don’t you put restrictions on them? And what about those who are watching it on DVD’s? There are many loopholes in the systems as far as the content is concerned.
Way forward :- Instead of putting 1.1 million people on surveillance, You can simply work on women grievance redressal, Do take strict actions on those who threatens women on call and messaging them. Those who are stalking school girls and working class womens.. Make a separate complaint redressal mechanism or educate your 10th pass constable to IPS Officers to treat women respectfully when women are in trouble. Make available CCTV cameras on roads and proper functioning of street light in dark zones. Continous petrolling in late nights. All these bars and cafe who operate till late night must be on a check. See, All these so called developed countries have legalised pornography and sex workers. But there mechanism is so advance that they can prevent most of these rape attempts.
Watching porn increases risk for woman safety. Thats even more bullshit than ever. Do u know why children in these country are not free to talk about porn because the older generation thinks it is not ethical and thus the children of our country are not aware of sex education. They usually learn these things from porn sites that is the reason they know something because nost of the times these chapter are even skipped in schools. This is not increasing crime against women but if the government think that this might be a way to stop this them whats the problem in trying. I am sure they will soon find the error in the way of their thinking. And to be fair crimes against women have been going for centuries even when there was no internet let alone porn sites. This method might prove effective at some level but then who i am to decide whats going to happen…