Mohammad Ghazal, The Jordan Times

Facebook campaign draws praise, criticism from public
 

AMMAN — A campaign seeking to block pornographic websites in the Kingdom drew mixed reactions from several Jordanians interviewed by The Jordan Times on Saturday.

Many citizens said accessing pornography online has a negative impact on a society in which young people are a majority, while others disagreed, citing personal freedoms.

“I support blocking pornographic websites in Jordan. Content on such sites is against Islam. Letting children and teenagers access such sites has a disastrous impact on the entire society,” Ahmad Fathi, a lawyer, told The Jordan Times Saturday.

Sabri Shafiq, a father of four, agreed.

“Teenagers and children nowadays are Internet proficient. They should learn how to use the Internet and technology to learn and become innovative. Pornographic websites distract young people and I support blocking these sites,” Shafiq, an engineer, told The Jordan Times yesterday.

Last week, activists launched a campaign on Facebook, which by Saturday had drawn 25,733 fans, to raise public pressure on concerned authorities to block such sites in the Kingdom.

“The campaign seeks to put an end to sexual crimes such as incest, rape and adultery,” the organisers said on the campaign’s Facebook page.

They said between 77 per cent and 80 per cent of Internet users in Jordan access pornography, citing the Internet metrics company Alexa.

The citation could not be independently verified.

The campaign urges Jordanians to send e-mails to the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology and the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission to demand that pornographic sites be blocked.

Several Jordanians criticised the initiative on their Facebook pages as the campaign turned into a debate among users of the social networking site.

One of the Facebook users said he watches pornography to “know what to do after getting married”.

Another pointed out that even if the telecommunication authorities block these sites, there are still ways to gain access to them, while other Facebook users defended pornography as a matter of personal freedom.

Voicing support for the campaign, Hussein Khuzai, associate professor of sociology at Balqa Applied University, stressed the importance of raising awareness on the dangers of exposing children to such sites.

“Technology should be used in a constructive manner. Watching pornographic websites harms the psychology of teenagers and young people. Watching these sites distracts students and affects their study,” he told The Jordan Times on Saturday.

“It is important to allow children to use the Internet, but it is very important for parents to monitor what they watch and read,” he said.

“Watching pornographic websites encourages teenagers to deal with women from a sexual point of view and disregard their humanity,” the sociologist added.