BATU PAHAT: The Information, Communication and Culture Ministry has welcomed former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad views on the need to filter pornography on the Internet, said its minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim.

"I greatly welcome Tun's views because we appear to be alone in voicing out against this negative influence. If more leaders voice out against pornography, the easier it will be for us to tackle this issue.

"There are certain quarters who have doubts about legal provisions to tackle the menace.

"Actually, we have Section 265 of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Comission Act to handle this," he told reporters after attending a memorial organised by the National Archives for the late Tun Hussein Onn (Malaysia's third prime minster) at Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) here Sunday.

The media recently reported Dr Mahathir saying he was becoming increasingly worried about the spread of smut on the Internet and felt it should be filtered as it was contributing to the increase in sexual crimes in the country.

Dr Rais said it was still too early to come up with a mechanism to block pornography on the Internet, but nevertheless, discussions in an objective manner would be carried to tackle the problem so that it was not misinterpreted as censoring the Internet.

He said if the source of pornography was from within the country, the authorities could act but at the moment, could do very little to prevent its spread if the source was from overseas.

"The is a need for an internal mechanism to check the spread of pornography on the Internet. At the same time, parents too need to do their part to protect children from this scourge," he added. - Bernama

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