Pornography law should reach Internet
Feb 11, 2007
IT'S good that the law on pornography has been put in place to prevent newspapers and magazines from publishing materials that would corrupt morals in our society.
Alfred Byenkya
IT'S good that the law on pornography has been put in place to prevent newspapers and magazines from publishing materials that would corrupt morals in our society.
This has been one of the marketing strategies of a section of the media intended to win readership, to the chagrin of activists such as religious leaders and non-governmental organisations.
Parents, teachers and guardians have been the most concerned people because children have easy access to the print media on their way to and from school. Although the law may help to control media content in the print media, its effect will not be complete until it stretches to the Internet. The Internet has spread tremendously because every town now has a cafe where everybody is welcome provided they pay.
In major Kampala suburbs like Kansanga and Wandegeya with big university student populations, most students use the Internet for non-academic purposes. This explains why the cafes are usually full during late hours of the night. You find the students busy checking all websites for pornography. The content does not increase the students’ knowledge but only pollutes their minds. The pictures they watch are mainly of nude people doing all sorts of things.
Primary and secondary schools in Uganda now have access to the Internet. Is it possible for Mango, MTN and other providers to consider blocking websites which children might use to access inappropriate content? Pornography is associated with many evils like prostitution, indecent dressing, strip dancing and various forms of sexual abuse.
Apart from pornography, the Internet is partly responsible for the increasing crime rate in the world. Conmen use the Internet to advertise bogus lotteries, job opportunities and visa services. Their prey are mainly people who are desperate to live and work in Canada. It is believed that this mode of fraud was initiated by Nigerians who are notorious as the world’s worst conmen and intellectual thieves.
The fraud has flourished because the laws that regulate the use of the Internet are weak. Many people are not sophisticated enough to differentiate between genuine Internet lotteries and those from conmen.
The writer is a student of Makerere University
IT'S good that the law on pornography has been put in place to prevent newspapers and magazines from publishing materials that would corrupt morals in our society.
This has been one of the marketing strategies of a section of the media intended to win readership, to the chagrin of activists such as religious leaders and non-governmental organisations.
Parents, teachers and guardians have been the most concerned people because children have easy access to the print media on their way to and from school. Although the law may help to control media content in the print media, its effect will not be complete until it stretches to the Internet. The Internet has spread tremendously because every town now has a cafe where everybody is welcome provided they pay.
In major Kampala suburbs like Kansanga and Wandegeya with big university student populations, most students use the Internet for non-academic purposes. This explains why the cafes are usually full during late hours of the night. You find the students busy checking all websites for pornography. The content does not increase the students’ knowledge but only pollutes their minds. The pictures they watch are mainly of nude people doing all sorts of things.
Primary and secondary schools in Uganda now have access to the Internet. Is it possible for Mango, MTN and other providers to consider blocking websites which children might use to access inappropriate content? Pornography is associated with many evils like prostitution, indecent dressing, strip dancing and various forms of sexual abuse.
Apart from pornography, the Internet is partly responsible for the increasing crime rate in the world. Conmen use the Internet to advertise bogus lotteries, job opportunities and visa services. Their prey are mainly people who are desperate to live and work in Canada. It is believed that this mode of fraud was initiated by Nigerians who are notorious as the world’s worst conmen and intellectual thieves.
The fraud has flourished because the laws that regulate the use of the Internet are weak. Many people are not sophisticated enough to differentiate between genuine Internet lotteries and those from conmen.
The writer is a student of Makerere University