Uganda’s internet service providers have been given the challenging task of blocking pornographic websites.
This is after the government said it will protect the country’s youth from the dangers of online pornography.
According to the government, the directive is driven by a desire to shield young people from explicit material, predators, and offensive content circulating on social media platforms.
The decision to block adult content follows a call from Uganda’s Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Thomas Tayebwa, who urged the government to take action against all forms of pornographic material.
“Our children are exposed to cartoons of violence, our teens are exposed to pornography. In Muslim countries, pornography is blocked. Tell me how much we can lose as an economy if we blocked pornography sites in the country. Pornography is killing us,” said Tayebwa.
Uganda’s stance on pornography has been evolving over the years. In 2014, the Anti-Pornography Act was enacted, criminalizing the production, distribution, and consumption of explicit material.
Having nude photos on mobile and electronic devices in Uganda can land you in jail for up to 10 years under the country’s anti-pornography law, which parliament passed in 2014 with an aim to “stamp pornography out of the Ugandan society.”
However, implementation and enforcement of the law faced challenges, leading to a resurgence of pornographic content in various forms.
In 2017, the Ugandan government established a “pornographic control committee” with the specific mandate of detecting and prohibiting pornographic material within the country’s borders.
The committee went to great lengths, investing Ksh.12 million, to acquire a specialized machine that claimed to be capable of detecting all pornographic content present in Uganda.
Despite all these investments, the anti pornography law was declared unconstitutional in 2021 by the court.
Critics say the law was misused, leading to women being attacked in the streets for wearing certain types of clothing, such as miniskirts.
A panel of five judges unanimously ruled that sections of the law that defined pornographic offences, including a ban on “indecent” clothing, were unconstitutional.
They said that no harm would occur to society if certain bans on acts or material that elicit sexual excitement were lifted.
