Iran maps out policy for classifying Internet restrictions

[Len]

Iran is taking initiatives to classify internet censorship under "age" and "occupation" within the next two to three months, Tehran Times daily reported on Saturday.

Currently, all users ranging from students to university professors, and journalists to doctors, are subjected to the same internet access restrictions, Iran's Information and Communications Technology Minister Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi was quoted as saying.

It is necessary to classify internet censorship in terms of age and job, the minister noted.

He elaborated further by saying that "once we block a news website for journalists we are actually persuading them to use VPNs to circumvent the bans."

Now that everyone is entitled to the same regulations, some perfectly legitimate requests, using some website depending on their jobs, of people are being ignored, he said.

The situation must be handled discreetly, and both Information and Communications Technology Ministry and the judiciary must take steps to classify the access based on each group's needs, he added.

"We have made some positive improvements so far and we hope to implement the new regulations within the next two to three months," he was quoted as saying.

Iran's Internet restrictions include blocking access to particular websites and services.

Besides, some official voices have called for the creation of a separate "Halal Internet," which would allow the contents devoid of offensive Islamic law, although the governments have faced problems to cope up with their ambitions to segregate Iranian users from those of the world.

High ranking officials have actively encouraged adoption of domestic sites for applications like blogging, email, and social media, however, many young people have preferred the use of similar services hosted abroad, which are more difficult to supervise.