By Khaled Al-Sulaiman
THE Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution (BIP) has made an important clarification in response to a newspaper report about its refusal to incriminate people who store porn videos on their cell phones and computers, surf prohibited websites or download applications that help them open banned or closed sites.
The BIP said the cybercrimes law incriminates the circulation and promotion of porn material, but not keeping them for personal use.
This has put a seal on the excesses of some people who take the law into their hands by calling for the incrimination of anyone who saves explicit material on their mobile phones or computers.
It is true that keeping and watching such videos is unethical but no one has the right to take the law into their hands or prevent people from practicing something that is permitted by the law.
Such behavior simply represents a flagrant abuse of power. If there is an issue in this regard, it could be corrected by amending the rules and regulations, not by overriding them.
This reminds me of some people who are in charge of implementing the law in various sectors. When they want to prevent something they will just say “it is not allowed”.
They impose the prohibition by the authority of their position, not according to the prevailing rules and regulations.
I remember an incident a few years ago when I was using binoculars to watch a football match in one of the stadiums. A policeman asked me not to do this. When I asked him if he was ordering this based on standing instructions or this was just his personal judgment, he simply said this was prohibited and that was all.
A few minutes later the policeman came back to me and said I could use the binoculars if I wanted to.
It was obvious that he took sometime to think and decide that his action was just whimsical and not legal.
