Countries like the United States and Canada have little-to-no censorship thanks to laws guaranteeing free speech and the ways the courts interpret those laws. Other countries are much more stringent, and some go so far as to censor or block pornography on the internet. Censorship laws tend to correlate strongly with countries’ levels of overall freedom.
There are currently sixty countries that outright ban porn or restrict it in some way.
Restriction levels and punishments vary from country to country but in more extreme cases, it can end up in your death.
North Korea has the highest level of censorship of any country in the world. The government censors everything moving into, out of, or around the country, including all news sources, media outlets, and social media. Pornography is not allowed.
Then again Russia’s not all that much better when it comes to porn. While viewing porn may not be illegal, production of it is, and it can land you some serious prison time if you are caught. While we know of one porn producer from the US who got himself shipped off to Siberia for the production of porn, rumor is two other major producers are wanted and if they were to ever return to Russian they would be jailed as well. Let’s just say those Russian’s don’t mess around.
So what about everyone else? Well, here is the list of those countries where porn is either outright banned or seriously restricted.
Porn Banned | Porn Restricted | |
Afghanistan | YES | YES |
Algeria | YES | |
Armenia | YES | YES |
Australia | YES | |
Azerbaijan | YES | |
Bahrain | YES | YES |
Bangladesh | YES | YES |
Belarus | YES | YES |
Bhutan | YES | |
Brunei | YES | YES |
Cambodia | YES | YES |
China | YES | YES |
Cuba | YES | |
Egypt | YES | |
Equatorial Guinea | YES | YES |
Eritrea | YES | YES |
Ethiopia | YES | |
India | YES | |
Indonesia | YES | YES |
Iran | YES | YES |
Japan | YES | |
Kazakhstan | YES | |
Kuwait | YES | YES |
Kyrgyzstan | YES | |
Laos | YES | YES |
Lebanon | YES | |
Libya | YES | |
Malaysia | YES | YES |
Maldives | YES | YES |
Morocco | YES | |
Nepal | YES | YES |
North Korea | YES | YES |
Oman | YES | YES |
Pakistan | YES | YES |
Palestine | YES | |
Papua New Guinea | YES | |
Philippines | YES | |
Qatar | YES | YES |
Russia | YES | |
Rwanda | YES | |
Saudi Arabia | YES | YES |
Singapore | YES | |
South Africa | YES | |
South Korea | YES | YES |
Sri Lanka | YES | |
Syria | YES | YES |
Tanzania | YES | YES |
Thailand | YES | YES |
Tunisia | YES | |
Turkey | YES | YES |
Turkmenistan | YES | YES |
Uganda | YES | YES |
Ukraine | YES | |
United Arab Emirates | YES | YES |
Uzbekistan | YES | YES |
Venezuela | YES | |
Vietnam | YES | YES |
Yemen | YES | YES |
Zambia | YES | |
Zimbabwe | YES |
Source: World Population Review