After failure to deliver pornography machine, ethics ministry wants detection software

The pornography control committee has stepped up efforts to block pornographic content from making it into Uganda’s borders. The committee is working with the Uganda Communications Commission(UCC) and the National Information Technology Authority Uganda (NITA) to block websites featuring pornographic content.

Dr. Annette Kezaabu the chairperson of the committee says they are in talks with mandated government institutions to ensure success in blocking the highlighted sites.

The pornography control committee was inaugurated in 2017 to take all necessary measures to ensure the early detection and prohibition of pornographic material in Uganda’s borders.

This followed Minister for ethics and integrity, Father Simon Lokodo’s announcement in 2016 that government had spent sh300 million on a special machine to detect all pornographic content in Uganda.

However, Kezaabu has revealed that the machine was never bought. She says government instead plans to purchase pornography detection software.

“We have looked at different software, some will be bought and they will be very useful. The pornography detection machine was never bought. But at the moment, the biggest machine is UCC and also the Anti pornography Act , 2014," Kezaabu said.

The same act also defines Pornography as sexually explicit videos, photographs, writings, or the like, whose purpose is to elicit sexual arousal – acts the chairperson of the pornography committee believes should be dealt away with.

The committee is in talks with the National Curriculum Development Centre to remove all suspicious content from the syllabus.

"The curriculum is being reviewed and we are going to work hand in hand with Ministry of Education and NCDC. The whip is expected to be cracked starting June,” Keezabu added.

While addressing a press conference in  August 2016, ethics minister Fr Simon Lokodo said that the pornography detection machine was due to arrive in the country in September that very year.

He further added that the Government had already contracted a South Korean company that will supply it to Uganda upon the ministry receiving the budget of sh2.6b.

Part of the budget will aid the anti-pornography committee to monitor and implement the law.