JERUSALEM, July 12 (UPI) -- Lawmakers from Israel's ultra-Orthodox Shas party have proposed two laws restricting access to Internet pornography, it was reported Wednesday.
The first proposal, by Shas Member of Knesset Ya'akov Magari, seeks to outlaw access to pornographic Web sites in government offices.
According to the bill, "the Web pages are liable to encourage sexual violence against women and even cause debasement and humiliation of women. Therefore, surfing these pages must be forbidden in all ... government offices," the Hebrew news Web site Ynet reported.
Coincidentally, the proposal comes amid several female former employees' allegations of sexual harassment by Israel's president, Moshe Katsav.
The second proposed law, from Shas MK Amnon Cohen, would require Internet surfers at home to identify themselves via password and fingerprint to gain access to the page.
Citing a need to restrict children's access to pornography, Cohen said, "(I) proposed this law to create a situation where these sites are blocked from the outset, and opening them will only be possible with a physical key that identifies the user," according to the report.
In a similar move, National Religious Party MK Zevulun Orlev has proposed a law that would bar cellular customers from accessing sex lines from their cell phones unless they request access beforehand from the cellular providers, the report said.
