Indonesia has been blocking websites that it considers "negative" for its netizens.
And this goes further as the Communications and Information Ministry blocks pornographic content by utilizing Google's SafeSearch feature.
SafeSearch is a feature that blocks explicit images, videos, and websites from Google Search results. It acts as an automated filter that can prevent pornography from showing up on its search results, and also removes potentially offensive content.
The ministry has ordered local telecommunication companies and ISPs to permanently activate the search engine's SafeSearch, starting August 10th, 2018. What this means, whoever access Google from Indonesia use Google with SafeSearch with no way to deactivate the feature.
"The method will filter any pornographic content in the image category, including if a user inputs keywords," said Semuel A. Pangerapan, the ministry’s director general of applications and information.
Indonesia has been blocking pornographic websites for years, but this was ineffective as contents were still available on Google. People can easily search for explicit images and videos by accessing Google Search and typing in their queries.
"That’s what we’re trying to eradicate. Concerned mothers have reported that their children search for images by using pornographic words. We are using the SafeSearch method based on our year-long research," added Semuel.
In addition to Google, Semuel also said the government planned to collaborate with other search engines, such as Microsoft’s Bing to apply a similar filtering feature.
According to Google, "SafeSearch is not 100 percent accurate, but it can help you filter inappropriate content." This is especially true because the feature uses algorithms to identify contents and images, and block them from showing up if they are considered explicit. This method may fail from time to time.
But still, as 25 ISPs in Indonesia started activating SafeSearch permanently, according Minister Rudiantara, they have blocked 95 percent of web traffic that goes towards those explicit websites.