BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — A parliamentary committee of the Supreme Council of Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday approved a measure to outlaw online adult content in the country.
According to a statement by the Council’s Department of Public and Media Relations, the Committee on Law and Order, Combating Crime and Corruption considered a proposed law whose title translates as “On Prohibition of Access to Sites Containing Pornographic Content Elements in the Internet Space of the Kyrgyz Republic.”
A background statement on the draft law states that the legislation is intended to “protect the moral and ethical values of society, as well as the spiritual health of the individual.”
“Given the public accessibility of sites containing pornographic content on the internet, the emergence of an industry based on the distribution of pornography is destroying the spiritual, moral and ethical form of people's consciousness,” the background statement declares.
It is already illegal to import, produce, distribute, or advertise pornographic materials or images in Kyrgyzstan. However, those laws have previously not applied to online content.
“The absence of such a law allows the owners of sites and website pages to freely and with impunity distribute inappropriate content,” the background statement argues. “These draft laws propose a definition of the concept of ‘content containing elements of a pornographic nature’ and establish a ban on the distribution of such content.”