PTA blocks over 2,000 child pornography sites

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication informed that Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) blocked more than 0.824 million websites in the country containing objectionable content The action was taken as a part of a drive aimed at removing the unlawful content being uploaded on the internet, PTA Chairman Major General (retd) Amir Azeem Bajwa told the committee, which met here with Rubina Khalid in the chair on Wednesday.

He said collective efforts are required to discourage the use of illegal content as millions of Web Pages were uploaded on internet daily. Bajwa said more than 11,000 proxy websites had also been blocked by the authority, which were being accessed through Virtual Private Network. He said the PTA had acquired list of 2,384 websites containing child pornography content from Interpol and blocked them all through coordinated efforts. The authority received as many as 28 public complaints so far and none of them was related to child pornography, he added. Bajwa said the PTA was sensitising the public about the procedure of reporting an activity related to child pornography.

The people were asked to report any such content on dedicated email address reportchildporn@pta.gov.pk. Briefing the committee about the number of mobile phone blocked, the PTA chairman said a total of 10,273,531 devices were blocked on a rolling basis upon lapse of 60 days period while 1,257,755 IMEI were also unblocked. An official of Federal Investigation Agency told Senate body that its Cyber Crime Wing had received 13 complaints regarding child pornography.

Regarding the agenda item for provision of cellular mobile coverage to Malakand district, the committee was told that a meeting with Ufone was held to improve coverage in the area through national roaming. Negotiations between the cellular mobile operators CMOs were underway, it was further informed.

The committee was apprised that a letter was written to all CMOs and Universal Service Fund to take necessary measures to improve the coverage in Malakand. CMOs had installed 105 cellular towers to provide mobile coverage in Malakand.

The chairperson constituted a sub-committee to come up with recommendations to ensure the protection of the government department websites and to overcome the cyber crime prevailing in the country. She said the department dealing with cyber security should benefit from the expertise of brotherly countries.

Expressing his concern over the duties being charged on mobile phones from the overseas Pakistanis, Mian Ateeq Sheikh said the tax should be charged equally on new and second hand mobile devices. The committee chairperson underscored the need to relieve tax on a cell phone brought from the overseas.

The meeting was attended by Senators Dr Ashok Kumar, Abdul Rehman Malik, Ghous Muhammad Khan Niazi, Muhammad Tahir Bazinjo, Sana Jamali, Fida Muhammad, Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, Kalsoom Parveen, and Minister for Information Technology among senior officials from the ministry.