Thread: Does indian cyber policy allow adult websites?

Some of my friends are talking about creating an adult blog or forum which would drive money for from advertisements. Is such a thing allowed by Indian IT Act 2006 or related cyber laws?

Hi mk_inforum and welcome to INForum!

We interviewed a lawyer recently at:
Indian Domain Name Blog ? Indian Domain Law - Interview with Pravin Anand

This is what he had to say:

Are there any restrictions on registering Indian ?adult? domains?

The Government of India some years back established the Computer Emergency Response Team, or CERT-IN, as a means to monitor all incoming and outgoing Internet traffic from India. Currently, there is no established law as to which websites the government censors, or when. In the past, mainly pornographic and anti-establishment political websites have been blocked.

Adult web sites are restricted as being against public morals and decency. Most registrars and hosts will not register or host web sites which contain adult contents including pornography, warez sites etc. However the discretion as to what the ?adult? material is has been left entirely to the registrars and hosts of web sites.

Common sense would say that anything the Centre can mess up, they will. So why take the chance with a dot-in extension?

From what I understand, now that India's Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008 has come into force, the publication of sexually explicit material in electronic form is an offence. For more info about the Act, read here.

WHAT’S NEW?

Sending offensive emails and multimedia messages. Data theft. Child pornography. Cyber terrorism. Publishing sexually explicit material in electronic form. Video voyeurism. Breach of confidentiality and leakage of data by an intermediary. Phishing, which is essentially efraud via impersonation. Identity theft and fraud on online auction sites. [emphasis added]

Edit: I'm having a tough time locating an online copy of this Act. Does anyone know which website would have a copy?

I located a copy of the IT (Amendment) Act 2008. The relevant section is 67A which deals with the *publishing* or *transmitting* of material containing sexually explicit acts etc in electronic form:

67A. Whoever publishes or transmits or causes to be published or transmitted in the electronic form any material which contains sexually explicit act or conduct shall be punished on first conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years and with fine which may extend to ten lakh rupees and in the event of second or subsequent conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years and also with fine which may extend to ten lakh rupees.