SINGAPORE – Singapore’s Media Development Authority (MDA) Friday announced that it had banned one gay website and fined another for content deemed inappropriate for the city-state’s citizens.“The MDA has always adopted a light-touch approach and encourages the industry to practice self-regulation,” MDA spokesman Casey Chang explained. “But in this instance, we received several public complaints and we have to act on the feedback.”
The fined site, which billed itself as a place for visitors to “Meet Gay Singapore Friends,” was instructed by the MDA to remove photos and videos of men having sex with one another and to pay a $5,000 Singapore dollar ($2,953.71 US) fine.
The banned site, on the other hand, which is hosted overseas and claims a membership jump from 60,000 to 330,000 during the past year, featured still photos and video with a heavy gay Singapore presence. Additionally, the site contained graphic recruitment ads for underage boys, assisted with the exchange of photos featuring underage boys, and provided information about mass orgies and places for casual sex.
According to the MDA, both sites violated the Internet Code of Practice, which forbids content that shows “nudity or genitalia in a manner calculated to titillate” or which advocates homosexuality or pedophilia.
The age of consent for sex in Singapore is 16. Homosexuality is illegal and laws against it are strictly enforced, although the government insists that it does not discriminate against homosexuals in spite of its declaration that it will not tolerate an openly gay culture within its borders. The MDA lists 100 banned websites, all of which are included due to pornographic context, except for two which are said to promote religious extremism.
