Police officials for integrated law to curb cyber crime, pornography
The government is considering enactment of a law particularly to curb cyber crimes and pornography in the country.
The home ministry has already prepared a draft bill titled Pornography Control Bill-2010 outlined by the police headquarters.
The bill has been sent to the law ministry for vetting and it is expected be passed on to the cabinet division for placing it before the cabinet for approval, police headquarters sources said.
The draft bill proposes five years in jail or Tk 50,000 in fine or both as maximum punishment for cyber crime or a crime related to pornography, the sources said.
Compact disks containing porno-videos have flooded the market, spreading among the youths as there is no law to control the spread of porno-CDs in the country, they said.
Inspector general of Police Hasan Mahmud Khandaker told New Age that they were taking some measures to curb cyber crimes and pornography which posed a serious threat to the sanctity of the society.
‘Curbing cyber crime has become a big challenge for us as it is spreading fast among the youths. We are working on it actively. Besides enacting laws to curb cyber crime and pornography, we have to procure equipment to detect and identify people involved in cyber crime and bring them to book,’ the IGP added.
He also stressed the need for training police and members of the law enforcement agencies on curbing cyber crimes and pornography.
The IGP said that in some cases, the lawmen had identified some criminals who had threatened some people using their cell phones.
Asked about the proposed Pornography Act, Rapid Action Battalion director general Mukleshur Rahman told New Age that if the is passed, it would help the authorities to fight cyber crimes.
‘Besides, we need to formulate an integrated policy to curb the cyber crime. We have some equipment for identifying the criminals, but we lack legal coverage to punish the criminals,’ the RAB DG added.
He also said that RAB had arrested a number of people in last 18 months for their alleged involvement in criminal activities.
Soon after receiving the allegations from any people, RAB takes immediate action to identify the crime suspects, he said.
He alleged that many people were running cyber cafes in the city without having registration from the authorities concerned.
‘Cyber cafes should be brought under strict vigilance of the law enforcement agencies so that nobody can escape after committing criminal activities using those,’ he said.
Cyber Café Owners’ Association President Nazmul Karim told New Age that there were a total of 4,500 cyber cafes in the country.
Of them, some 250 cyber cafes are running their baseness having registration from Bangladesh Telecommuni-cation Regulatory Commission, he said.
The BTRC legal and licensing department director general AKM Shahiduzzaman however said that there were a total of 1,000 cyber cafes in the country.
Of them, some 250 cyber cafes were registered with the telecom regulatory authority, he added.
