A Sri Lankan magistrate has ordered the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) to ban all "harmful websites" in the wake of a worrying increase in child pornography and sextortion cases in the country. 

The order came days after Sri Lankan authorities formed a dedicated new cell to probe the incidents of child pornography in the country as police revealed that over 17,000 videos and pictures related to child pornography have been uploaded from the country in a little over a month.

Colombo Additional Magistrate Lochana Abeywickrema also directed the Commission to submit a report to the court containing all information about malicious websites accessing the internet, registration of such website names, payments and provision of services.

The magistrate issued the order after considering a request made by the Attorney General’s Department to ban these websites as the investigation has revealed that malicious websites are involved in various forms of human trafficking and sexual abuse.

The matter came to light during a magisterial inquiry into the alleged sexual exploitation of a 15-year-old girl.

Rajiv Ravinath, the main suspect in the case, was produced before the court and was named as the 31st suspect in the case.

The magistrate also sent on remand the suspects Ranasinghe Arachchilage Duminda Sampath Perera, the creative administrator of LankaAd.com website which placed the advertisement for soliciting the girl for sex and the owner of the website Makewela Gedara Dhanuka Kaushalya until August 11.

The magistrate ordered the suspects who were remanded for being the administrator and owner of the website in question to seal the passwords of the website and submit them to the court.

Last month, the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children was established at the Children and Women Bureau in Colombo  to monitor pornographic video clips and photos related to children.

Authorities have formed special teams to patrol cyberspace all the time to monitor pornography-related incidents. The government is also using modern technology to identify the person or parties that upload video clips and photos related to child pornography.

According to data shared by police, between 17 June to 28 July this year, 17,629 video clips and photographs have been uploaded to cyberspace from laptops, desktops, mobile phones, and tabs in Sri Lanka.

Internet and exponential growth of social media platforms have also given space to criminal networks, posing challenges to law enforcement authorities across South Asia. 

Earlier this year, Bangladesh busted a transnational human trafficking network that had been using social media applications like TikTok, Likee, and Instagram. Authorities in Bangladesh are also considering banning these platforms.

(SAM)