Solon blames broadband technology for proliferation of porn

By Erwin Lemuel Oliva, INQ7.net

A lawmaker who was also former chief of the National Telecommunications Commission blamed the advent of "cheap, high-speed Internet access" for the proliferation of pornography and so-called "cybersex" activities.

While broadband Internet access has ushered in e-commerce, Catanduanes Representative Joseph Santiago said this innovation has also fostered pornography and felonious, organized cybersex operations.

Serving as vice chairman of the House committee on transportation and communications, Santiago cited recent studies showing that 25 percent of broadband users listed downloading pornography as a reason for upgrading from a simple dial-up Internet connection to broadband or digital subscriber line.

He said that about 19 percent of all Web traffic today and about 25 percent of all Web searches are pornography-related. These figures were based on traffic through the top five Internet search engines, including Google, Yahoo!, MSN, America Online and Ask Jeeves.

Early this year, Santiago said that over 200,000 Filipinos may have been lured by cybersex rings based on the registry of one popular Internet site peddling online sexual activities.

Operators of web-based pornography often lure men and women, and even children, to perform live sexual acts for a fee before cameras, which then stream images directly to the computers of paying Internet users.

The Philippines has about 11.8 million Internet users as of 2004, data from International Data Corp. (IDC). By 2007, the country's Internet users are expected double to 20 million