A South African politician has commenced a campaign for a blanket ban on digital pornography in the nation.
The deputy minister of home affairs, Malusi Gigaba, is proposing a ban on pornography distributed through TV, the internet and mobile phones, the BBCreported.
He has asked the country's Law Reform Commission to decide whether such a law is possible, and is consulting with the Justice Alliance for South Africa (JASA) over a draft bill.
JASA has written its own draft bill suggesting porn be blocked via ISP-level filtering, and Gigaba has made comments that suggest he favors this plan.
“Cars are already provided with brakes and seatbelts... There is no reason why the internet should be provided without the necessary restrictive mechanisms built into it,” he said.
But security firm Sophos has ridiculed the suggestion, telling the BBC that it is “barking mad to think you will be able to completely outlaw pornography from the web,” given that it is “the modern equivalent of the wild west.”
The Australian government has sparked furious debate with its own proposal to implement ISP-level filtering rules for local providers. Last week it found itself back in the limelight after it was revealed that local customs officials now have the power to search laptops and mobile phones for porn.
International travelers arriving in Australia now have to declare if they have any pornography at arrival. Customs defended its search practices, arguing that certain categories of porn that are legal elsewhere are still illegal to import into Australia.