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NEW DELHI: The government is planning to set up an ombudsman to keep a check on pornography and other objectionable content on the internet — a move that would be a non-starter right from the start, according to independent experts. This comes within a day of the Centre ordering the disabling of 857 websites.The “next ban by the Modi government” — as critics dubbed the exercise to restrict porn websites — is already being lambasted by the online community as an attack on the freedom of adults to watch content of their choice, though telecom and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad clarified that the government has “no intention of engaging in moral policing” and the step is “just an interim measure”.While everybody TOI spoke to agreed that child pornography needed to be curbed and dealt with in the strictest possible way, most criticized the current move, which appeared to be taken in a hurry.Social media and IT experts said the order to disable the websites tantamounts to policing the internet by the government and may “set a bad precedent”.Also, in an era where millions of websites offer pornographic content and many such clips are randomly shared on instant messengers, the present step is seen as inadequate and an ineffective move to check the menace.“The decision seems to be taken in haste, especially when we have a parliamentary standing committee that is already looking into the issue,” Subho Ray, president of Internet and Mobile Association of India, told TOI.Controlling the net is almost impossible, and there are ways to bypass blocking of any particular websites. “While there is a need to ban child pornography, the government should have had a discussion on the matter before taking such a step. In any case, the menace cannot be controlled in this manner,” said Ray.Mobile operators also said it is “just not possible” to control pornography through the present move. “You shut down one website, another springs up. So it is a very difficult thing to do,” Rajan Mathews, director-general of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) – which has members such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular -- said. “It is near impossible to curb pornography in this manner.”Internet Service Providers Association of India also said that the measure cannot control the menace of child pornography. “The exercise seems futile and will rather slow down the internet further as ISPs will have to do further filteration of blocked websites. This is not foolproof,” said Rajesh Chharia, president of the association.Many also criticized the blanket ban, saying an adult had the right to choose what he watches till the time it is not shared and is seen privately. Milind Deora, IT and communications minister in the previous Congress-led government, dubbed the move as “Talibanisation” of the country.However, Prasad defended the government’s measure and said the idea is not to censure freedom of speech and expression on the internet. “I reject the charge that this is Talibanisation. Our government supports a free media, respects communication on social media and has respected freedom of communication at all times. My government is committed towards freedom on social media and communication on the internet,” the minister said.Top government officials also said that a variety of measures are being considered to tackle the menace of child pornography. “Can we have some kind of encryption, or parental guidance regarding the images or videos on these websites, or some filtering of content, all these things are being studied,” an official said.The official also said that the apex court can lay the foundation to have a consensus when dealing with pornography and its treatment. “We need to have structured views. The court should involve child rights activists, NGOs, resident-welfare associations, civil society and the government in order to get a clearer view.”Speaking on the ombudsman, the official said it could be a retired SC judge or somebody from the civil society. “However, on issues of national security, terrorism, extremism, communalism, the government will have a final say...beyond that the social media divide comes into operation, let there be an ombudsman to take a call, like the TV ombudsman is there,” the source said.The government’s decision to block close to 900 adult sites smacks of moral policing. It may argue that the decision stems from the Supreme Court’s observations on the issue of child pornography, but its actions do not bear out this contention. Child pornography must of course be banned and anybody found to be peddling it must be dealt with severely. But that is no reason for cracking down on porn in general. As the Supreme Court itself observed, the state should not be getting into what people do in the privacy of their rooms. Today, the state is deciding pornography is not acceptable. If this goes unchallenged, tomorrow it might lay down other rules based on its notion of morality. That’s a slippery slope. Besides, experience has shown technology almost always stays a step or two ahead of such regulation — all that will now happen is that consumption of porn will be driven further underground.