The Chairperson of the Pornography Control Committee (PCC), Dr. Annette Kezaabu, has revealed that over 150 websites have been closed by internet providers in Uganda due to pornography . Kezaabu has also expressed concern about the escalating exposure of Ugandan children to pornography and online sexual exploitation, calling it a “quiet dangerous normalization” of child sexual exposure in the digital space.
Speaking to journalists at the Uganda Media Center in Kampala , Kezaabu whose committee operates under the Office of the President’s Directorate for Ethics and Integrity said the problem is no longer distant or abstract, but unfolding “within the very devices we have placed in our children’s hands.”
She said that children are now encountering explicit material at increasingly younger ages, with some being groomed into sharing sexual images and others drawn into transactional and exploitative digital interactions. Such exposure, she stressed, is “not neutral” and can distort normal development, damage emotional and social growth, drive premature sexualisation, and foster dependency through repeated dopamine-triggering content.
“Left unchecked, this does not simply influence behaviour—it reshapes how a child understands relationships, dignity, and self-worth,” she added.
Now, the government, through the Pornography Control Committee and the Directorate for Ethics and Integrity, working with the Uganda Communications Commission, recently undertook targeted blocking ofover 150 pornographic websites.
“This was not a blanket action. It was deliberate, coordinated, and protective,” Dr. Kezaabu explained, noting that the move is aimed at reducing children’s exposure to harmful content and making Uganda’s digital environment safer.
She emphasised that the measures are not about curtailing freedoms, but about safeguarding minors in a rapidly changing digital world where pornography is “private, portable, and embedded in everyday digital interaction,” often accessed accidentally through social media and messaging platforms.
Dr. Kezaabu acknowledged that blocking sites alone is insufficient and outlined broader steps the Committee plans to take. These include strengthening school outreach programmes, partnering with child psychologists and experts for early detection and rehabilitation, and working with institutions to build awareness and digital resilience among young people.
The PCC chairperson called for a whole-of-society response, urging parents to be present and attentive in their children’s online lives, schools to guide and protect learners, religious and community leaders to reinforce values, and the media to report responsibly.
“Protecting children is a shared responsibility,” she said, warning that without deliberate action, Uganda risks raising a generation shaped more by unchecked digital influence than by guidance and protection.
“A child should be free to grow, to learn, to play, to be curious—not to be exposed to exploitation, manipulation, and premature adult realities,” Dr. Kezaabu concluded, closing her remarks with the national creed: “For God and My Country.”
