SMSs pure evil
2002-11-13 13:32
New Delhi - An Indian non-governmental organisation on Tuesday called for a ban of short messaging services on cellphones, alleging SMS harm marriages and help terrorists.
India's National Human Rights Council (NHRC) said cellphone text messaging is being used to send indecent messages in the country, often resulting in divorce.
"If somebody sends a dirty message to the husband and the wife sees it, or if the husband sees some message sent on his wife's phone, obviously there would be a divorce," said NHRC president Subhash Gupta.
"SMS should be a means of positive communication and not of sending obscene messages or terrorist communications."
Under Indian law, SMS can be monitored by senior federal or state officials.
Gupta said the text messaging service was being used to "divert" the minds of India's youth towards a dating culture, which is alien to Indian tradition.
According to figures from India Today news magazine, 25 million SMS messages are sent every day by about 400 000 cellphone owners in the country, an average of 60 messages per phone per day. - Sapa-DPA
- SAPA