YNOT – Recent international surveys have indicated web users in India are the most avid searchers for the word “sex.” That should surprise few, considering one of the country’s proudest contributions to world literature is the Kama Sutra. Long considered one of the penultimate works documenting carnal techniques, the Kama Sutra is believed to have been written in the second century CE. The best-known English translation arose in 1883.Now, in order to prevent perversion among a populace that considers fulfilling sex to be an integral part of a healthy, virtuous life, Indian officials have amended the country’s Information Technology Act to ban the publication of pornographic material.
In response, search engines Yahoo and Bing have disabled Indian users’ ability to turn off the “safe search” function, thereby effectively culling all but the sneakiest adult-content links from the results they return to users on the subcontinent.
The 150-year-old section of the penal code upon which the new regulation is based is much younger than the Kama Sutra, yet it appears to outlaw the classic text. The section defines as obscene “any content that is lascivious and that will appeal to prurient interest or the effect of which is to tend to deprave or corrupt the minds of those who are likely to see, read or hear the same.”
The Information Technology Act specifically enables the government to take action against search engines, internet service providers, internet cafés or other service providers that fail to “exercise due diligence and disable access to any content which contravenes the act.” Prescribed penalties include a three-year jail term and fines of up to 500,000 rupees (about $10,747).
