Senior Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil, has criticised proposals to require Ghanaians to use national identification cards to access pornographic websites, arguing that it is not the responsibility of the government to regulate people's private consumption through such measures.

Speaking on JoyNews' Newsfile on Saturday, June 6, during a discussion on the proposed age verification policy, Mr Bentil said history has shown that attempts to enforce morality through legislation often produce unintended consequences.

Drawing a comparison with the prohibition of alcohol in the United States, he said that banning or excessively regulating personal behaviour does not eliminate the behaviour but often drives it underground.

"In America, they had what they called the prohibition," he said.

"It was a period when, especially religious people and people who believed that they had a conscience to save society from the excesses of alcoholism, proceeded to get constitutional amendments and laws passed to prohibit the consumption of alcohol."

According to him, although the policy was introduced with good intentions, it ultimately created more problems than it solved.

"All the virtues are touted. You will do this good, that good, this good, that. There are things you can't stop with the law," he stated.

Mr Bentil said prohibition led to increased alcohol abuse, encouraged hoarding, and strengthened organised crime networks.

"That prohibition period is what led to the strengthening of the mafia, which led to so many other crimes," he said.

"After a number of years, they forgot about the prohibition altogether, but the damage had been done."

He said that his opposition to the proposal should not be interpreted as support for unrestricted access to adult content.

"I am not saying we should do nothing," he said.

"I am saying it is not the government's business to try and use ID cards to control people's consumption of porn."

Instead, he said that parents should take primary responsibility for guiding their children's online behaviour and moral development.

"You cannot outsource the upbringing of your children to government," he said.

"And even if it is outsourced to the government, the government has no way of raising my child better than me."

Mr Bentil expressed particular concern about what he described as peer-to-peer pornography, where explicit content is shared directly between individuals through social media platforms.

"For me, the worst part of this porn thing is what I call peer-to-peer pornography," he said.

"What you are seeing on Snapchat and other platforms is people sending things to people and making all kinds of things."

He argued that attempts by governments to act as a "morality police" have historically failed and warned against creating new regulatory systems that could be abused.

"This concept of a morality police, human beings have tended to want to do that, and it's always failed," he stated.

"You have to raise your children and make sure that they have the kind of morals that make them not want to do certain things."

While acknowledging that existing laws already restrict certain activities to adults, Mr Bentil questioned whether the Minister for Communications should be focusing on introducing ID verification requirements for adult websites.

"Must the minister be interested in using people's Ghana cards?" he asked.

He warned that creating a new regulatory framework could result in unnecessary bureaucracy and provide opportunities for abuse.

"They're going to create a whole new bureaucracy, which will become the basis for oppressing and trapping all kinds of people, and you'll be surprised what it will be used for," he said.

Mr Bentil further argued that the country faces more pressing digital challenges that deserve greater attention from the Communications Ministry.

"There's real cybercrime in Ghana," he said.

"Ghana is one of the capitals of international romance fraud. We have big things."

Although he agreed that protecting children from harmful online content is an important issue, he maintained that the solution lies in homes, schools, and faith-based institutions rather than government regulation.

"Some of these things have to do with how we bring up our children, at home and in school," he said.

"The churches are a bulwark against some of these things. Like it or not, a lot of what we are seeing... if it was not for the church, where would they be?"

Mr Bentil also questioned the timing of the proposal, suggesting it was an attempt by the government to project a moral image.

"I think this is grandstanding," he said.

"I really think this is a segue from the fiasco of the LGBTQ thing. I think this government is trying to signal that they want to own a moral high ground."