Browsing centres and shops selling mobile phone have once again come under the scanner of city police for promoting obscene video clippings, especially among the youngsters. Computers used for downloading pornography video clippings were seized from a few browsing centres and eight persons, including those from mobile phone shops, arrested.
Following instructions from Commissioner of Police P. Kannappan, the police raided a few browsing centres and mobile shops in Anna Nagar, Pudur, Sellur and Tallakulam on Friday.
“We found that pornography clippings were downloaded into mobile phones at those shops where sales and services of mobile phone handsets are done,” Mr. Kannappan said.
Recalling that the city police had raided several shops selling pirated compact discs in May 2011 and many shopkeepers were arrested for selling pirated CDs of movies and obscene clippings, Mr. Kannappan said such activities had come down drastically in CD shops.
The commissioner had a meeting with over 100 persons from all walks of life recently and discussed with them several issues concerning them in the city.
“The issue of pornography was pointed out by many at the meeting following which we conducted a survey of the browsing centres and mobile phone shops for sometime. We also confirmed their illegal activities through decoys,” he added.
During the raids, it was found that the browsing centres had allowed their customers to watch obscene clippings on their computers.
“While the normal charge for browsing was Rs. 20 an hour, they collected Rs. 50 an hour for watching such clippings,” a police officer said.
Such clippings were also downloaded on the desktop of the computers at the browsing centres inducing the customers to watch them, Mr. Kannappan said. The clippings were also downloaded in pen drives for the customers for a charge, he added.
Similarly, downloading of pornography clippings was being done at the mobile shops.
“This is the worst part of this illegal business, as students get to see all these stuff at their will. There is a number of constraints in playing such CDs, since it required CD players and a secluded place. But with the mobile phones, they can watch them at any place without being noticed by parents and others,” he said.
Mr. Kannappan noted that exposing youngsters to pornography would ruin their lives.
It was a crime worse than theft and drug addiction. Stating that such cultural degradation cannot be allowed, he said, adding that the city police would initiate steps to cancel their licences.
The police have planned to insist the internet browsing centres use firewall in their networks to prevent viewing of such websites and also to display boards in their offices against watching pornography.
