Parties join forces to protect children from internet porn

PARLIAMENT HAS instructed the Education Ministry to collaborate with the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (CyTA) and other internet providers to filter all computers used by students to stop them from accessing pornographic content.

The broader issue of “How to prevent underage children from accessing child porn and other pornographic material on the internet” was submitted for discussion to the House Crime Committee by AKEL deputies Costas Papacostas, Yiannakis Thoma and Panicos Stavrianos, and the Committee has been examining the matter for the past few months.

The final report is almost ready, Committee Chairman Costas Papacostas told reporters after the meeting, and will soon be promoted to the Plenum for discussion.

Yesterday’s sitting was attended by spokesmen of the Education Ministry’s Electronic Communications and Post Regulation Service, CyTA and the Cyprus Research and Academic Web (KEAD), who informed deputies on the legal frame and implementation methods that are used both in Cyprus and internationally to filter websites, which promote illegal pornographic material.

The CyTA spokesmen told the committee that the Authority was already implementing such a programme, which has been used by around 600 members of public so far. He added that the service would now be offered to CyTA subscribers for free, as opposed to before where there was a monthly charge.

“The Committee’s intention is to complete this report in a way that will effectively combat the phenomenon of child pornography over the Internet,” said Papacostas.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.