Obscene websites to be filtered

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has directed the Director General of Telecommunications Regulation Commission (TRC) that the websites featuring obscene and pornographic materials should be filtered with immediate effect to protect children against the internet pornography.

In recent years, there has been increasing concern about the exposure of children to obscene and pornographic materials via the Internet. The proliferation of Internet raises serious problems concerning the unrestricted access to the obscene and pornographic materials, especially among children, a press release by the TRC said.

Having identified its consequences, President Rajapaksa has taken this decision to count the threat posed to children as a result of unrestricted access to the websites meant for adults.

Accordingly, the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission has directed Internet service providers to filter the websites featuring obscene/pornographic/sexually explicit material.

However, adults who wish to have unrestricted access to the Internet the service may be obtained from an Internet Service Provider in a password protected manner on payment.