TEL AVIV - Israel's Ministerial Committee on Legislation has approved a bill that would restrict access to adult websites to users who agree to identify themselves. According to Ha'aretz.com, the proposed law gives the communications minister authority to establish procedures for identifying users, which could include I.D. cards and numbers, or credit cards.Similar restrictions in the country have already been imposed on adult content for cell phones. Critics of the bill have expressed concern that the existence of a database identifying porn consumers could prove damaging to consumers if the information is leaked.The proposed Internet censorship legislation — which would also affect gambling sites and those that are deemed violent — was pushed by the Justice Ministry. The bill was slightly altered from its original form, which included a complicated system of biometric identification using each Internet users' fingerprints.According to Haaretz.com, existing customers will be contacted within 60 days of the bill's approval, and will have to decide whether they are interested in accessing pornographic sites. Customers who do not agree to access such sites will then be connected to a limited service that denies it.Violators of the bill would be heavily fined.
According to Assemblyman Amnon Cohen, who proposed the bill, 60 percent of children in the country, ages 9-18, have viewed pornography on the Internet, and 44 percent of parents did not know that their children were exposed to such sites.
