Setting up a regulatory mechanism and making laws to force websites to respond to the government faster would be a better solution than completely blocking them to keep in check objectionable content, a cyber security expert said in Hyderabad on Wednesday.
"I do not support completely blocking popular social networking websites. In terms of illegal content, the government should create a regulatory authority where they will closely work with all these different websites. Whenever there is something offensive that is posted, it will be removed," Ankit Fadia, a prominent computer security expert and ethical hacker, told PTI.
The regulatory mechanism should be broad-based without the government representatives alone having monopoly, he said.
"If the government creates a regulatory authority which has government members only, then public won't like it. There has to be a representation of different sections. There has to be a legal expert, a technical expert... the youth should be represented, the police and the government. It can be a nominated committee and it can change every two years or four years," Fadia, who also works with government agencies, said.
He favoured formulating a law, if it does not exist now, to force the websites to respond faster to the government.
"There has to be a law which forces the websites to respond to the government faster. I am not a legal expert, so I don't know if such a law exists or not. But blocking should not happen. The government should decide what is legal, what is illegal. Right now, who is there to decide?" he asked.
He felt that the existing cyber laws are good enough in dealing with issues of defamation.
"According to cyber law, if I write something against you, you can file a defamation suit against me and then the court will decide whether what I wrote was correct or not. Then, if it was to defame you, then action can be taken against me. The cyber laws that are existing in the country cover that," Fadia said.
He suggested that parents should openly explain to the children about the ill effects of accessing objectionable content instead of trying to control them.
"I think the parents should have a dialogue with their ids. Nowadays, the kids are smarter than the parents. If you pretend that pornography or illegal things on the internet do not exist, then you are fooling yourself and fooling your kids. Instead, educate them. They will respect you more and the rule if you explain to them," he said.
Replying to a query, he said, "Internet users need to realise that everything on the internet is not correct. I can sit at home and post whatever I want. Don't look at it literally that it is the popular opinion in the country. It is the opinion of one individual or it can be fake also. The offensive content can be deleted also. So, have a mature view of it."