Nepal bans porn websites after seeing a 300 per cent increase in rapes in ten years
- The Nepali Ministry for Information and Communication issued a ruling Tuesday
- A statement linked pornography to the country’s worsening rape culture issue
- In 2016/17 there were 1,667 cases of rape compared to 400 just ten years earlier
Nepal’s government has implemented a sweeping ban on all forms of pornography in its latest efforts to tackle the country’s rape problem.
A statement released by Nepal’s Ministry for Information and Communication on Friday cited pornography as one of the primary drivers behind the country’s rape problem.
‘The Criminal Code 2071 article 121 and other prevalent laws prohibit the production and dissemination of sexually obscene contents.
Nepali activist take part in whistle rally against rapes, in Kathmandu on April 4 this year as the number of cases has been rising rapidly
‘In order to prevent the access of such content through electronic media, the need of pulling down such websites inside Nepal has become necessary,’ stated the release from the ministry.
As part of the measures, the government of Nepal issued an order requiring local Internet service providers to block all pornographic sites in the country.
Providers are concerned about the prohibition of pornography, because it is difficult to implement new sites with adult content that appear almost every day, and the site has been blocked by one provider are not blocked by others.
However, some providers of Internet services in Nepal have already started to block porn sites.
According to government figures revealed in the Nepali Times in June, the total number of rape cases has increased four-fold in the past ten years.
In 2016/17 there were 1,667 cases of rape compared to just over 400 a decade earlier – a rise of around 300 per cent.
Nepalese activists hold placard as they demand justice for a six-year-old rape victim back in March 2015
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