Sunday, Feb 5, 2012    Text size: 

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Nearly a million porn sites have been blocked by the Indonesian government.

The action was initiated by the country’s Communication and Information Ministry in its ongoing effort to ban porn than began in 2010 despite experts’ skepticism that doubted its overall effectiveness.

According to reports, Indonesia’s latest round of censorship is in line with its commitment to build moral character for the nation and improve people’s ethics in using the Internet for “positive purposes.”

During a seminar on Healthy and Safe Use of the Internet at a Jakarta hotel, Minister Tifatul Sembiring said, “We’ve blocked more than 983,000 porn sites. We will keep doing it.”

The seminar was held just days before Friday’s International Safe Internet Day.

According to Sembiring, Indonesia is home to 45 million Internet users, and household computer use is expected to grow 25.8 percent each year.

“Censorship and filters will not work if the people’s ethics in using the Internet are low and people prefer to look for porn sites,” Sembiring said.