PH gov’t blocks popular porn sites

SCREENGRAB FROM PORNHUB’S WEBSITE

The Philippine government has blocked Internet users from accessing adult websites, just 10 days after a popular porn site found Filipinos to have spent the longest time watching adult content for the third straight year.

As of Saturday, access to known porn sites such as pornhub.com and xvideos.com had been forbidden, either through mobile phones or laptops. Users were redirected to a page notifying them of such a ban.

“This website has been ordered blocked under authority of the Philippine government pursuant to Republic Act 9775 or the Anti-Child Pornography Law,” the notice on the websites read.

The ban comes just days after Filipinos topped for the third straight year pornhub.com’s study of its users viewing behavior. Filipinos spent an average of 12 minutes and 45 seconds on the adult website, almost two minutes longer than a South African, which came in second.

Filipinos had topped the study since 2014.

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As of writing, it is yet to be known if the two adult websites have violated any provision of the anti-child pornography law. Under this law, they are prohibited to host any child pornography content on their site.

Should such content find its way in their site, they are required within seven days to “report the presence of child pornography, as well as the particulars the person maintaining, hosting, distributing or in any manner contributing to such Internet address, to the proper authorities.

They are also ordered to “preserve such evidence for purposes of investigation and prosecution by relevant authorities.”

In 2014, the National Telecommunications Commission issued a memorandum circular ordering Internet service providers to ban access to sites with child pornography materials.

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