Kenya, Tanzania eye legislation for adult content

Kenya and Tanzania have embarked on an aggressive campaign to sensitize the public about adult content through legislative reform.

Tanzania has had the most controversial debate over adult content after photos of President Jakaya Kikwete were manipulated to show the president in compromising positions. The photos were published online on a Web site that has since been blocked, with the owner arrested.

The debate in Tanzania raised issues of pornography and children, as well as defamation -- where people use online forums to publish lewd content and hide under the guise of freedom of expression.

"Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority officials have been engaging cyber cafe owners in every town, urging them not to allow unaccompanied children to surf," said Innocent Mungy, Public Relations Manager at TCRA.

To address issues of online content and how to deal with adult material, Mungy said TCRA has published a bill for legislative debate. The bill aims to give the public recourse in cases where embarrassing pictures or content are published.

In Kenya, the Ministry of Information and Communication is amending criminal law that makes pornography illegal. Recently, the police seized hundreds of local porn DVDs.

"Media convergence has complicated issues. Porn will now be available online and we have different perceptions; we have to be very careful because consumers have rights, and it will be very tricky how the regulator handles it," said Richard Bell, Managing Partner at East Africa Venture Capital Partners.

Related legislation in the region has not been drafted in a thorough manner. For instance, the Kenyan Communications Amendment Act, passed in January this year, does not address issues of online content and how it should be regulated. The act dwells mainly on traditional broadcast media content.

"Kenya is revising Chapter 222 of the laws to protect children from pornography, "said Bitange Ndemo, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communication.

Through broadcast regulations, the ministry is expected to add specific regulations targeting the protection of children from porn.

"On Internet however, the responsibility squarely lies with the parents; we cannot start regulating Internet just because a few parents are not able to control which their content their children have access to," added Ndemo.

But in schools, the government is putting in place firewalls to ensure that children are protected from adult content while in school.

Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania also will have to address the thorny issue of cultural heritage and whether such content will be considered lewd if availed online.

For instance, boys and girls were expected to go through initiation processes where they were taught how to behave in family settings. These traditions involved talks about sex and demonstrations.

In Uganda and Tanzania, the cultural aspects of preparing girls and boys for adulthood is elaborate and involved the extended family. In Kenya, the education process has been left to the media.

"In Tanzania, it is possible that cultural content will be digitized but will not necessarily involve the sex part," said Jamilla Mwanjisi, a Tanzanian writer. "The process is more practical and bedroom issues are only a small part of it though some people may take advantage and post adult content to such sites."

The East Africa Community is yet to take a stand on the matter; it has been left to member countries to determine how to address matters of content.