BENGALURU | DELHI: Blocking Internet porn may be next to impossible. But the Indian government is going to try anyhow.The plan is to begin by creating a list of pornography sites, especially those hosting child porn, and provide that to Internet service providers (ISPs) to block. And then, to ensure that largescale blocking does not slow Internet access, service providers will be asked to upgrade their infrastructure. The Internet and Mobile Association of India has been asked to curate the list.At a meeting chaired by Telecom & IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and attended by top government officials in September, the “problem of porn” was discussed and the minister directed the departments of IT and telecom to work together to improve “blocking infrastructure” at the ISP level.Prasad said although porn is legal in other countries, it needs to be viewed in the “context of Indian culture and moral obligation towards society”.The meeting of the Cyber Regulation Advisory Committee was triggered by a recent directive from the Supreme Court, which asked the government to place the issue before the committee. The committee has convened just five times since it was formed in 2000. The apex court is hearing a petition filed by lawyer Kamlesh Vasvani, seeking to ban porn as it leads to “activities like rape, harassment, molestations of women”. At the last hearing, held on August 29, the government said that filtering porn was not practical.The department of telecom had said large-scale blocking of websites could slow the Internet down, unless services providers upgrade their infrastructure.“The problem is that you are veering down a slippery ground if you try to do this, installing filters and all,” said Prasanth Sugathan, counsel for the Software Freedom Law Centre. Such blocks have been ineffective in countries such as the UK. However, in China, where the ban on online pornography is strictly enforced, it is another story, as that country has people dedicated to monitoring content, he said.An extreme step would be to follow what countries such as North Korea do. Internet is regulated heavily and domestic Internet users are served by a sole provider with limited access to the global Internet. “But the question is, should we be moving towards that or we should be respecting Internet freedom,” said Sugathan.Blocking porn will not be an easy task by any means. According to one estimate by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, there are more than 40 million porn websites around the world and most of them operate outside India where porn is legal. Moreover, there are many ways including the use of proxies to get around to blocked websites.For instance, in 2009, the Indian government banned a website which hosted porn-toon portraying the sexual adventures of a housewife. Content from the site is still widely accessible.The use of the “https” protocol, which encrypts data transmission, makes it tough to block pornography. At the meeting in September, the IT department suggested the government start with a list of child pornography sites that can be obtained from other countries where it is blocked strictly.The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party also wants the government to take steps to block Internet pornography.“A solution may need to be worked out to prevent availability of pornography on the Internet considering the cultural sensitivities of the country,” Arvind Gupta, head of BJP ’s information technology cell, conveyed to the committee, according to the minutes of the meeting reviewed by ET.Telecom Secretary Rakesh Garg pointed out at the meeting that the latency of Internet access would go up if a large number of websites are blocked. India already has the lowest average Internet speed among most countries. Garg said the ISP infrastructure needs to be upgraded to deal with large-scale website blocking.The committee comprises the minister for information technology and top officials from the ministries of legal affairs, commerce, home affairs, defence, the Central Bureau of Investigation as well as representatives from non-government bodies such as Nasscom , Confederation of Indian Industry and Federation of the Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry.Legally, viewing pornography in private is allowed in India although hosting and transmitting porn is punishable. Further, according to the Information Technology Act, browsing, downloading, creation and publication of child porn is illegal.“Child pornography and pornography cannot be said in the same breath. The government has very firm legislation against it,” said Vidya Reddy, director of Tulir-Centre for the Prevention and Healing of Child Sexual Abuse.The government also suggested that NGOs will have to play a big role in creating awareness and sensitising the ill-effects of porn.