Increasing porn culture in Cyber Cafes; Police ignorant of facts - Newindpress.com

Increasing porn culture in Cyber Cafes; Police ignorant of facts
Friday October 7 2005 13:03 IST
KOZHIKODE: Are the corner specific Internet cafes promoting porn culture among the youngsters of the city?

Even if not openly acknowledged, the Police raid on Tuesday on an ever-busy Internet cafe near the City Police Commissioner’s office on Pavamani Road in which college-goers were warned for having watched porn movies openly hints at a booming business behind those cafe name boards.

Enter any small Internet hub of the city, cramped swing door cabins will welcome you to the world of cyber crimes.

At Rs 15-20 any person(s) can avail an unrestricted one-hour of their own, most often flavoured with porn clippings pasted on to the desktop by the service-minded cafe owner with a leering smile.

As the Information Technology (Cyber Crime) Act of May 2000 defines Cyber pornography as an unlawful act that makes use of Internet to download and transmit pornographic pictures, photos and writing punishable, what measures have our Police taken to tackle such crimes altogether?

“State Police have not yet begun to enforce the law,” says Kozhikode South Assistant Commissioner K Jayendran.

“What we are referring to is an Indecent Representation of Women Prohibition Act, which makes the public screening of lewd scenes alluding to the body of women, punishable with imprisonment of up to three years.

“We frequently check out such centres where cafe owners attract youngsters by providing public entertainment using computers as tools. But most possibly the cafe owners could be charged for abetting only,” he says.

According to Jayendran, a special Cyber Cell is in the making in the State, which will deal with the crimes related to the misuse of Information Technology soon.

“We have plans to sketch a common design for the Net Cafes, which will make it mandatory that the cabin wall will be built only up to the height of the monitor placed on the table.

“It will not breach anybody’s privacy, at the same time it will be easy for others to view what is going on there,” he says.

However, the Police have not apparently been concerned about the flourishing porn CD screening trade in the net cafes of the city.

“We haven’t come across any such crimes before. This is the first one (referring to the Tuesday raid) we have laid our hands upon.

“Also, you could not view everybody with suspicion, since people opt the channels out of their personal interest,” says Jayendran.

But many a Net frequenter here vow to have come across such obscene movie clippings in all the Net cafes they have visited.