The Nigerian Web Content: Combating Pornography using Content Filters

There is increased growing concern about the social and psychological impact that obscene and spurious web content will have on our society now and in the future. The invasion of pornographic sites on the Internet is an issue of serious consequences. It has been estimated that over 10 million people a week visit pornographic websites in Nigeria alone. The psychological effects of this and its attendant repercussions cannot be overemphasized. An increase in sex crimes resulting from these activities is already noticeable in some advanced countries of the world; this trend is expected to manifest itself in the third world. If something is not done the “global village ” may as well metamorphose to a “global brothel”. So far in Nigeria, the only measures taken against obscene content is the placement of notices in cyber cafes prohibiting the browsing of sex sites. More has to be done technically. This paper reviews the impact of Internet pornography on web-users in Nigeria and advocates the use of web filtering programs as a robust measure against unwanted Internet content