Belarus needs law to ban pornography on Internet :: Charter'97 :: News

An article should be included in the Belarusian Criminal Code introducing criminal responsibly for spreading child pornography on the Internet, Igor Chernenko, chief of the Interior Ministry department for high tech crimes told Interfax.

"The criminal business should be given the status of a publicly dangerous act entailing criminal responsibility," he said. "As a rule the spread of pornography is not an aim in itself. It is a very profitable business which in its turn is used to fund organized crime," he said.

"The huge sums generated by child porno are spent on bribing officials, on corruption. That`s why all criminal groups want to control child porno," Chernenko said.
However, under acting legislation "we cannot bring anyone to criminal responsibility for these operations," he said. "There is an article in the Criminal Code implying punishment for spreading pornography. But it can be applied only to a person who has been brought to civil responsibility for a similar offense during a year," he said. "Nobody is a fool to run the risk after getting a warning," he said.

"Besides, the article says nothing of spreading pornography in the Internet, neither does it single out child porno," Chernenko said.

"This is one of the reasons why criminals from Belarus spreading child porno are arrested only abroad, even though with our assistance," he said.

Chernenko said Russia introduced criminal responsibility for child porno last year. "We have been making such suggestions many times. So far there has been no reply," he said.