Issue: ‘Telkomsel blocks 800,000 porn sites’

Aug. 12, Online: Telkomsel claims to have blocked 800,000 websites in support of the government’s drive to restrict pornography during the Islamic fasting month.  The company filtered adult sites through its proxy server which automatically denies customers access to Internet pornography, Telkomsel president director Sarwoto Atmosutarno said Thursday. Due to the “blacklist” Internet access mechanism, Telkomsel customers attempting to access pornographic material on the Internet receive a message which reads: “Access is denied due to security policy enforcement”. “The blockage is performed in stages and will affect all gadgets with Telkomsel’s Internet access,” Sarwoto said, as quoted by kompas.com. Telkomsel demonstrated how the system worked for Post and Telecommunication Director General Budi Setiawan on Thursday.  Communication and Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring had previously asked Internet providers to filter all pornographic websites before the start of Ramadan.

Your comments:

I hope this is the first step to blocking pornographic websites. I hope our children will be protected by the law and Telkomsel. People who disagree with this regulation may be content to wait for their own children to be raped.
Agung Gregorius
Bandung

Agung Gregorius, I completely disagree with your logic and find it very disturbing. By all means state your case against pornography, but don’t make conclusions that are not factually based.
Pornography does not create rapists. Rapists are not simply frustrated men in desperate need of sex. Rapists are violent psychopathic criminals and their motives are never purely sexual.
Please explain, in your mind, what constitutes pornography? When does film cease to be harmless titillation for adults and become unacceptable and extreme?
For example: if two adults want to watch a movie of a couple making love, and it gives them mutual pleasure and improves their own love lives, I see nothing wrong at all, and I do not think it is yours or anybody else’s business to tell them how to live their lives.
On the other hand, I personally believe that films showing violence or rape, even if staged, or sex with children, are not good: but again, it is so hard to know where good ends and bad starts — what is kinky and what is simply perverted.
What really worries me is letting government decide what is good for us and what is not, especially governments whose own morals are extremely questionable.
Didi Karjadi
Bandung

I am totally in favor for blocking porn sites, albeit the fact that this initiative ends up blocking other sites that are by no means pornographic. It also worries me that this is merely a stepping stone for religious fanatics to press for more demands.
Lee
Jakarta

Sarwoto Atmosutarno, you might have a better company if your people spent more time on your customers and less time on the impossible task of filtering hundreds of millions of pornographic web pages.
I suggest you get your priorities in order, get back to business, and stop playing stupid political games.
I can assure you that your customers are interested in good service, not how many porn sites you have blocked.
MJ
Bali
 
The blockage shows the strength of the religious (especially Islam) influence on political decisions in Indonesia.
The country decided to be more open minded after the Soeharto regime. But time after time religious organizations have become stronger with the support of politicians, their networks and their access to money. Sometimes these groups end up controlling political decisions.
How bad is the political situation really deteriorating in Indonesia? Don’t mimic Iran or Saudi Arabia. Follow other countries like Singapore, Taiwan or Japan. Be like them... thinking forward!
Anna Bolen
Germany