PHILIPPINES ORDERS INTERNET PROVIDERS TO BLOCK CHILD PORN SITES

MANILA -  The Philippines government has ordered Internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to websites containing child pornography.

The move follows recent child sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the country, where live footage of children performing sex acts was streamed online to paedophiles across the world.

ISPs in the Philippines should install programs or software to “block access or filter all websites carrying child pornography materials” within 120 days, or until June, or face fines, said Edgardo Barrios, executive director of the National Telecommunications Commission, who issued a memorandum on January 30.

Barrios did not explain why NTC’s order was belatedly released this month.

“An information campaign for this project has started. It is a difficult project. It is a continuing one,” Barrios told Gulf News, adding that NTC was serious about implementing the country’s Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009 and the Public Telecom Policy Act of 1995.
After the deadline to install programs to block pornographic sites, ISPs should send to the Inter-Agency Council Against Child Pornography (IACACP) every 30 days a list of pornographic websites that were blocked, said Barrios who gave detailed instructions of NTC’s new order.
ISPs should also send to IACACP the list of subscribers who tried to access pornographic sites five days after each month, said Barrios, adding that ISPs should report to the police data of successful access done by subscribers within seven days that ISPs got data including time, source, and destination served by specific pornographic sites.
The cooperation of ISPs was needed for the investigation and prosecution of producers and users of pornographic materials using children, said Barrios. 

• This year, 13 suspected producers of pornographic sites, targeting paedophiles abroad as clients, were arrested in the Philippines.

Source: Agencies