JAKARTA — Porn lovers take their entertainment choices seriously and do not like government interference – even in conservative Muslim nations, as the ministry of Indonesia has learned after having made online pornography illegal and promptly had its governmental website hacked.With more than 230 million citizens, Indonesia has the largest Muslim nation on the planet. As is the case in the United States, moralists enjoy debating the degenerative quality of sexually explicit materials while pondering ways to keep it out of reach of not only children, but adults, as well. The advent of the internet and its easy access to copious forms of erotic indulgence has not reassured moral leaders that Western indulgence and excess will not become a role model for Indonesian men and women. Scandalous sex photos circling the ‘net and featuring Indonesian celebrities, a Parliament member, and even an everyday citizen have only made things worse.
The obvious solution, in the minds of those who run the Indonesian government, was to outlaw internet pornography entirely, as of March 25th. Photos, moving pictures, chat rooms; the whole nine yards.
It is not illegal for anyone within Indonesia to create or access “immoral content” via the internet. Those who violate the law can expect to face a $110,000 fine and six years in prison; making the law the most stringent on the books anywhere.
But showing the spunk they’d probably have preferred to share with someone cuter than a government employee, a group of porn-friendly hackers promptly let the Indonesian government know what they think of the new restriction. According to a report from Agence France Presse, the outraged horndogs posted a message “on the Ministry of Information website challenging it to ‘prove that the law was not drafted to cover the government’s stupidity.’” Accompanying the message was a manipulated photo depicting a governmental IT advisor, bare chested.
Although the site was temporarily taken offline, with visitors receiving an “Access had been denied” message, the hacked entry and photo have since been removed from the site, which is operating as usual.
The move was not taken in isolation, however. As Information Minister Muhammad Nuh explains, the decision to remove access to adult content was made in conjunction with the country’s launch of free internet to all high schools within Indonesia. With 40 million potential internet denizens and plans to offer free access to younger school children, as well, the government opted to ensure that their virtual innocence will be maintained.
March 29th was the date upon which all erotic content officially became blocked, ensuring that the 1 million Indonesian based adult sites, as well as everything from outside of the country, will remain unseen by Indonesians. As for what qualifies as “adult” or “immoral,” Nuh insists that “common sense will determine what is allowed and what isn’t. We have to protect the nation, particularly the young generation.”
Initially the power to block websites will reside in the hands of the surfer, with specific software available from the Information Ministry for download. The government hopes to improve this blocking technology by working directly with Internet Service Providers in the near future.
Using software blocks to firewall nations from sex has been a popular line of defense lately, but Australia’s $77 million attempt to do so not only resulted in failure – but failure by hack within an hour of release, courtesy of a teenager; the very person supposedly being protected by the hack-proof software.
This attempt to turn the eyes of its citizens from smut is not the first within the Islamic nation. Extremists in April 2006 demanded that shop keepers remove an Indonesian edition of Playboy from their shelves or face the consequences, which included death threats against the publication’s editor and a burned office. The Indonesian version contained no partial, complete, or even suggested nudity, yet its publisher faced distribution and profiteering from indecent pictures charges, which were ultimately lifted.
Ironically, Indonesia is a popular destination for sex tourists keen to visit its karaoke bars and hostess clubs. Earlier drafts of the anti-internet porn law also criminalized kissing in public and many art forms and traditional culture behaviors involving sensuality. These were removed for fear that the country might be seen as intolerant.
