WebProNews

The Indonesian parliament has passed a law that will restrict access to pornographic and violent Web sites.

The country, which has an 85 percent Muslim majority, has been at odds over the subject of pornography the last few years. "I think we all agree there's no way we can save this nation by spreading pornography, violence and ethnic hostility," Information Minister Mohammad Nuh told reporters.

The new legislation called the Electronic Information and Transaction Law will allow Indonesia's courts to accept digital material as evidence in case involving improper use of the Internet.  The law states that anyone caught sharing pornographic material, false news or racial and religious hate messages on the Internet could go to prison for up to six years and be fined $109,000.

An adviser for the information ministry said the government planned to start restricting sites hosting banned material next month. Software for blocking sites would be available on the ministry's Web site for downloading and that direct blocking of offending sites was being consider.

Critics point out flaws in the new law. "I agree if the bill is aimed at protecting children from accessing adult sites. But I am afraid the police will see it as a chance to extort money from people receiving spam porn emails," Zatni Arbi of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences told the Jakarta Post.

He also pointed out that blocking pornographic sites would not work." The draft law may raise a good point but I am worried about the implementation. Censoring is not that easy, as violators can easily find tricks to access and provide porn sites," he said.