I-Café Pilipinas Submits Position On Draft IRR For RA 9775

Click here for larger image.

I-Café Pilipinas, for being the national advocacy body of the Internet café industry in the country, got invited to participate in the Regional Consultation on the Drafting of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act 9775 (Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009) held last March 9, 2010 at College of Saint Benilde Hotel in Malate, Manila. The consultation meeting was attended by various government agencies and private sector representatives concerned with the implementation of the newly enacted law. The discussions lasted a whole day with proposals and suggestions on how to implement the various provisions of the Act freely exchanged by the participants.

The position paper submitted by I-Café Pilipinas to the technical working group which will finalize the IRR of the new law is a reiteration of the organization's position as contained in our white paper on the then Anti-Child Pornography Bill. Now that the bill is already a law, I-Café is aiming for a role in the implementation of the provisions of the law. The organization seeks for the consideration of the nominating agency for its inclusion in the Inter-Agency Council Against Child Pornography (IACACP) as one of the three (3) non-governmental organizations who will be in the Council that will coordinate, monitor and oversee the implementation of the Act.

On Internet filtering at ISP level, I-Café Pilipinas expressed its objection on the blanket filtering of  web contents with the purpose of blocking only the child pornographic materials taht may go through it. Instead of doing blanket filtering, we suggest the banning of IP addresses of sites to be submitted by IACACP to the Internet Service Providers which incidentally has a confusing definition in the Act such that many participants in the consultation meeting thought that i-cafés are covered by the law as ISPs. We likewise seek clarification in the definition of "internet service providers" to specifically exclude i-cafés in the term as used in the Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009.

You can see related information about this subject at Consultations On The Draft IRR Of Republic Act No. 9775.