Philippines Requires ISPs to Filter Child Pornography

LOS ANGELES—The Philippine government got a lot of people concerned this weekend when they thought it had announced that the nation's ISPs would henceforth be required to censor all porn sites, but the director of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) clarified Monday that the edict only applies to sites containing child pornography. In an text message sent to GMA News, director Edgardo Cabarios explained, "The Memorandum Circular (MC) is only for child pornography. The said MC was promulgated pursuant to Republic Act No. 9775, or the Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009." According to GMA, "Section 9 of RA9775 specifically states that the NTC should promulgate rules and regulations for 'the installation of filtering software that will block access to or transmission of any form of child pornography.'" The prohibition is literally on any form, according to the language of the statute, which defines "child pornography" as  "any representation, whether visual, audio, or written combination thereof, by electronic, mechanical, digital, optical, magnetic or any other means, of child engaged or involved in real or simulated explicit sexual activities." The law's definition of "explicit sexual activity" also includes "actual or simulated" types of conduct. None of this means that regular porn is legal in the country; the sale, distribution and exhibition of pornography remains a crime in the Philippines. But according to one local observer, Philippine technology law expert Atty. JJ Disini, scrubbing for all porn may be outside the scope of the NTC's charter. "It’s not entirely clear if the NTC has the authority to screen out content in general since its mandate only covers the regulation of the competitive aspects of the telecommunications business," he explained. One presumes, however, Philippine lawmakers could rectify that regulatory restriction with a simple change of the law, and very well may one day. After all, as AVN reported in 2010 regarding the case of two Swedish men sentenced to life in prison for running live cam sites, the Philippines is not exactly known for being a nation hospitable to certain online activities.