Aizawl, June 25: Easy access to pornographic sites in cyber cafes and the availability of dish television services from Myanmar offering adult content have led to an addiction to pornography among children in Mizoram. But the state government is yet to wake up to the grave issue
While cyber cafes in this northeastern state do not have a mechanism to check the surfing of adult websites by minors, the direct to home (DTH) services coming from Myanmar offer at least two to three pornographic channels. Chinese adult DVDs can also be easily acquired from the market for about Rs. 100.
But the Mizoram government doesn't have a cell to prevent underage groups from frequenting these sites and channels. The home department has sent some officials for training in cyber patrolling.
'We don't have any law prohibiting underage children from using cyber cafes or a law that makes cyber cafe owners check underage groups from surfing these elements, nothing mandatory made for the owners,' said Lalthlamuana, deputy secretary of the information and communication technology (ICT) wing of the Mizoram Planning Department.
'The home department has to look after these problems; we have already given a proposal in this regard,' he told reporters.
Internet cafes in Aizawl are usually thronged by minors on the pretext of playing computer games. The owners also don't care much about the websites these children visit as monitoring of the sites could affect their business.
'If they pay the bills, it's fine with me. They do their own business with the computers and it is not always good for my business to intrude or monitor what sites they click on to,' said Sangtea, a cyber cafe owner in Aizawl.
But he agreed that underage visitors do surf objectionable content in the Internet parlours. An owner of a broadband cyber cafe and gaming parlour here, Chhanhima, said above 40 percent of his costumers were underage children.
'I can't ask my customers each and every time not to visit porn sites, it's like risking my business, so I just keep quiet. I don't want to know what they're doing once they sit,' he said.
Read full article on ZeeNews
Last update : 05-07-2007 08:23
|
|
|
|
News 
