The government's attempts to curb Internet porn could also restrict access to important health information such as how to prevent HIV/Aids, a media watchdog said today.

The Centre for Independent Journalism said the moves, including an order for Internet cafes to install anti-porn filters, could block legitimate searches for information on safe sex and condom use.

"The Internet is a place where young people can get information on topics like HIV/Aids, homosexuality, safe sex and breast cancer without being afraid because it's anonymous," said the centre's director Sonia Randhawa.

"It's an important resource to have, especially in a society like Malaysia's, where it is difficult to get information," she told AFP .

The government has blocked government computers from accessing porn and instituted a 24-hour watch on their unauthorised use by civil servants, while school computers are to have filters installed.

Last month it also instructed Internet service providers to provide all their customers with low-cost software to bar access to Internet pornography.

However, Randhawa said research by the Kaiser Family Foundation, an independent healthcare think tank, found that pornography filters can block up to 27 percent of websites with the word "condom".

The organisation also said that nearly 10 percent of health sites were blocked during searches for "safe sex" using the least restrictive filters.

Internet censorship

Randhawa said imposing filters would undermine recent government efforts to tackle HIV/Aids, which include a controversial project to give free needles and condoms to injecting drugs users.

"There is action being taken on the one hand to deal with the disease but on the other, (the pornography crackdown) will have an effect on the campaign in the longer term," she said.

The Centre for Independent Journalism also characterised the government's orders to introduce anti-porn filters as the first formal attempts at Internet censorship in the country.

The government has used anti-sedition laws to curb political commentary and also targeted people who posted obscene content, but those cases were all done on a case-by-case basis, Randhawa said.

"This is the first time that there's actually been a huge net cast to try and filter out a particular kind of information," she said.

"The Internet is the only place in Malaysia where there are guarantees of freedom of expression... We're concerned that using the filter approach could easily be a temptation to filter out other sites as well."