Thailand- The top official in the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology claimed today that Thailand is among the top 5 nations of the entire world in pornographic websites.

Maneerat Paliphat, permanent secretary at the ministry, did not name the other four, or hint at how she knew about the “honour”.

But she did say that the webmasters of the porn sites could not be penalised as they have registered the sites overseas.

Mrs Maneerat said the flourishing pornography and cyber-criminals associated with Thailand present a social problem. Cases of hacking and online fraud working from Thailand have been handed to the Department of Special Investigation.

In the meantime, she said, Thailand needs more laws and regulations to prevent such social problems.

The ICT Ministry has redirected thousands of websites to its so-called “cyber inspector,” the green screen of mean which informs Internet users they have reached a blocked site.

In addition to obscene sites, the ministry has attempted to block sites which can affect national security, such as those relating to the three southernmost provinces of Thailand. In practice, the censorship is leaky.