Amid Data Tariff War, Google Expresses Inability to Prevent Online Pornography

Use of smartphone in India will double to 688 million by 2020. Rise in penetration of smartphone has also created serious concern among Indian families for their children who are vulnerable to misuse of internet which is becoming less expensive in country due to tariff war among telecom companies.

New Delhi (Sputnik) — Search engine Google has expressed its inability to prevent a person from uploading objectionable content online before he does so. Google has informed India's apex court that stopping a person to upload porn content would be like attempting to prevent murder, unless it is the case of a repeat offender like a serial killer.

"As with all crime, the job is to go after the criminal. But to try to strain the intermediary (Google) to bring in a preventive profiling mechanism is impossible," Google's senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi told the court's query if it was possible to check beforehand uploading of sexual offensive material.

Court has asked Google if "200 or so words" found objectionable could be blocked, Google said that these words could also be used in other context as well.

While watching or distributing child pornography is illegal in India, watching adult pornography is not. India's Department of Telecommunications has directed Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block the Interpol's "Worst-of-list" (containing website addressees with extreme child sexual imagery) provided by Central Bureau of Investigation last September.

Few days back, an Indian woman had appealed to the country's apex court to direct the government to put a complete ban on online pornography. In her appeal, the Mumbai-based engineer had contended that she has been a victim of domestic violence and sexual abuse due to her husband's addition to adult online content.

It is analyzed that more than 250 million people have access to adult content from their mobile devices.