GOOGLE BAN ON SEXUALLY EXPLICIT CONTENT:

GOOGLE’S DIRECTIVE TO BAN SEXUALLY EXPLICIT CONTENT FROM BLOGGERS GENERATED HEATED DEBATE

By Maritim Kipngetich

Google logo (Courtesy)

The recent directive by the Google search engine to blog users to stop posting sexually explicit content in their platforms has rekindled a heated debate among people.

The directive attracted support and criticism in almost equal measure after the story was published in the Kenyan newspaper, Daily Nation, on 25^th February 2015.

IzraLiz Simon commented by saying internet is accessible to anyone nowadays regardless of the age and this may have negative impact on the minor.

“I second the idea. Now that Web has become accessible to under aged,” he says.

The company gave one month to bloggers to comply with the directive. Failure to do so, their blogs will only be made private and it will be viewed by the people that were given link by the owner to access the blog.

To some people, one month is too long. Odongomofu, one of those who reacted to the directive, sees one month to be too long and the Google Company would have implemented the directive immediately without warning.

“This is a WELCOME note; I've tried to block such contents with no success. Congrats Google. Do it like yesterday no need for extra 1 month,” Odongomofu says.

DB Kazi criticized the directive by saying it is an assault on freedom of expression.

Google+ logo (courtesy of Google+ web)

Zoroh Patoh seconded the directive and he wished that other search engines could emulate the same so that the website could be more family friendly.

“Great news from Google, I hope yahoo will follow the same footsteps to stop this pornography issue in children, because this days children are dragged to dirty world while they are still too young,” he says.

However, not all people could just support the directive. Some compared the issuance of the directive to directives that have been issued by Kenyan Government. Pelekmekt says Kenyans would have interpreted the directive by saying it is a violation of media freedom.

“In kenya, this could have been interpreted to mean an aggression on media freedom had the directive been issued by GoK. But now it is western-oriented hence welcome to "patriots",” Pelekmekt says.

The search giant also bans all sexually explicit videos from its video hosting service, YouTube. It also does not allow pornographic material on its social network, Google Plus.