Proposed Israeli Law Would Create Govt Database of Porn Viewers

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has put the brakes on a proposed law that would create a nationwide database of citizens who access porn online, according to a report by The Jerusalem Post—in a country where hackers just seven years earlier leaked the personal information of every one of Israel’s nine million residents. But the bill, designed to create a complete ban on porn in Israel,  may not be dead yet.  The bill was introduced last week by Israeli Knesset (i.e. Partliament) member Miki Zohar of the conservative Likud Party—the party led by Netanyahu. "In the non-virtual world we have laws protecting minors to prevent them from venturing into sex shops and gambling centers, but online, children can be exposed to content that is unsuitable for their ages," said Zohar, according to an earlier Post report. "The Internet is a public space and along with the right and freedom of expression for every citizen lays the right and freedom of children to be in the public domain without encountering inappropriate content for their age.”  But privacy advocates said that the true purpose of the law was not to shield children from online porn, but to “shame” adults who choose to view the adult material, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. The bill would require all internet service providers to install filters blocking online porn sites from their own customers—but also contained a provision allowing users to “opt out” of the anti-porn filtering system. But to opt out, users must upload personal information allowing them to obtain an “access code” for online porn, according to Haaretz. A revised version of the bill attempted to address privacy concerns by requiring ISPs to erase data on user behavior. Nonetheless, Haaretz reported,” Zohar and a representative of telecom company Cellcom admitted that in the end, lists of ‘porn users’ would be created, intentionally or not.” Nir Hirshman, of Israels’ Digital Rights Movement warned that the bill would turn Israel into “a nation of informants who look over their shoulder to see who’s following them, and shady officials who have blacklists of deviants.” Netanyahu, however, halted the bill—at least for now—by raising concerns of internet censorship at a weekly Likud meeting of government ministers over the weekend. “My concern is that the internet, a space where there is [currently] no government regulation, will become regulated,” the prime minister said, according to The Times of Israel. “Who determines what content is permitted and what content is prohibited? Who will determine the interpretations? You have to be very careful when a regulator enters this space.” Zohar nonetheless said that he believed Netanyahu would ultimately throw his support behind the bill.  Similar concerns have been raised about a United Kingdom law, now scheduled to take effect next year, which as AVN.com has reported, would require U.K. internet users to upload personal data in order to verify that they were of legal age to view porn sites. Photo by Matty Stern / Wikimedia Commons