The Cyber World

The internet or world wide web founded by Tim Berners Lee has brought about an information technology revolution and has made the world a smaller place by bridging the communication gap.It has also made our lives convenient by providing a host of services.Also one can enrich his knowledge and keep himself updated of all the latest happenings across the globe at the click of a mouse.
But the dark, ugly and evil side of the internet is far more dangerous and harmful for the society than the benifits available from it, and has wider ramifications.
Internet pornography has grown to alarming levels during the past decade.Thousands of pornographic sites which provide salacious, vulgar and obscene content in the form of videos, texts, animation and pictures are very easily accessible to appeal to the prurient interests of the viewers.It is having a very harmful impact on the society and specially the adolescents.It also encourages one to deviate from normal behaviour and commit crime.
Though many countries have enacted laws to deal with this menace including India which has framed The Information Technology Act, 2000 to deal with pornography and other cyber crimes.It has not proved much effective.
The steps taken by China in this regard are laudable and it has taken the lead in dealing with this problem.
The Government has setup a department called The China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Centre [CIIRC] which acts as an internet watchdog and has shut down more than 4,000 pornographic sites since January, 2009.It has even asked all the computer manufacturers to pre install an internet-filternig software called 'Green Dam Youth Escort' from July 1, 2009 before selling their products.The software would block pornographic sites and images.
It is high time that other countries setup similar departments and emulate the Chinese model in this respect and also impose similar restrictions on wap sites accessible through mobile phones so that one doesn't get trapped in the 'web' of the world wide web.