The Ban Culture!

I am in favor of censorship in movies, television and any other medium which is exposed to kids. But the real reason behind that are kids, as they are not mature and we need to decide what they should and should not consume in the name of entertainment. I am not in favor of censorship for adults. Which means my support for censorship is only for ratings, to provide us detail on what to expect, and if that is suitable for kids. If we are mature enough to elect our government, how can the same government decide what we should or should not do? I am not interested in Porn, but I don’t regularly eat Beef as well. That does not mean it should be banned! Because I know, today it is Beef and Porn, tomorrow it would be something which will directly impact me!! I should not wait for that tomorrow to come, and protest now. 

I didn’t go out and search for beef in Mumbai, but I am sure I will find it for a premium price. Gutka or chewing tobacco is banned as well, but you go to almost any cigarette or pan shop asking for it, and you will get that. Similarly, smoking is banned at public place, but you just go to any open public place, and look around!! You will understand what I am trying to tell. Last night, I just tried accessing one of the banned site, and its working! Not directly, but a simple search in google will let you know various ways of accessing it instantly. The site itself is disgusting, but for those who like it, the site is still accessible. 

Moral policing is going to hurt us bad, and if we don’t protest, it is going to increase step by step. I have seen my friends on social media supporting ban on Beef and in past couple of days, they are supporting ban on porn as well. I am with them on the point that I don’t like Porn, but I don’t think it should be banned from internet. 

First of all, you just can’t block anything on internet! YouTube is blocked in Pakistan, but they access it easily, all the time! Second, there are so many porn sites; you just can’t find them all. And you block one, another comes up instantly. It just requires a 30 second job to start another internet address which is not blocked. So, you just have to shut down internet and have your own filtered website accessible to all Indians. That is the only way of controlling internet. That itself is not full proof, but you should be able to block more than 90% of the sites you wanted to block, as you will be blocking 90% of internet. 

I have seen a movie, Demolition Man, where the society of future was imagined to be a controlled society, with rule on almost everything. You can’t eat non healthy food, you can’t kiss or handshake and so on. With this kind of moral policing, we are progressing towards that kind of society. Tomorrow someone from Jain community becomes powerful, and he/she will put a ban on Onion and Garlic. Similarly, there can be ban on cooking oil, and we should all be eating healthy food. 

One argument is given that porn has become accessible to kids these days. But that is not because the internet or porn sites. That is because of the parents giving their kids phone with easy internet access. They are spoiling their kids. If I give my son a knife or gun to play, I cannot blame the knife or gun shop, right? I have not given internet access to my kids, even when they are 15-16 years old now. They use internet for their research as well as shopping or YouTube videos, but under our supervision, on our devices or laptop placed in open area of our house. This way, we are able to monitor their activities. It’s the same way we monitor their other activities like where they are going, who are their friends, which movie they are watching etc, we have to  monitor their internet activities as well. WhatsApp and Facebook is not cool for kids, it’s full of shit which they can’t distinguish, so they should not be on social media. 

We need to be more focused towards our kids, and ensure that they are not exposed to the area they should not be. This is because we are their guardian and we have to decide about their life till they become mature enough to take their own decision. That is the age of 18, when they are considered adult and at par with us. But in case of government, we are not kids, and they are not our guardian to decide what we should eat or watch or read. As long as I am not creating any nuisance for anyone else, and not violating any law, I should be able to do whatever I want. 

Before I wrap up, I would like to mention about a hypocritical stand taken up by our ISPs. Government have asked them to identify and block child porn site. I do support this, as that is illegal and involve children in such act. But our ISPs came back protesting that they cannot identify such sites as they do not have required infrastructure. Well, the same ISPs are ready to identify other services like social media, chat, telephony, video streaming and ready to charge us differently or these services, but not able to identify child porn! I think if they are asking the government to allow them for charging different rate for services they do not own or provide, like Facebook or Whatsapp, they should also be held accountable for any illegal activity done on these services. They cannot eat the cake and have it too! If you don’t want to be accountable, why should you be paid for that service?