Saturday, August 1, 2009
Pornography
Mention pornography to a person and he or she will probably cringe in disgust.
Pornography refers to sexually explicit materials, be it photographs, films or anything, aiming to produce sexual arousal of the viewers. I agree that pornography is simply wrong, but is there a need, or rather, is it practical to exercise censorship on it? I would say no.
Some may argue that pornography is harmful to the public, especially innocent children, and it is there just to satisfy their particular sexual needs. Viewers get addicted to it and hunger more, and among them, some even proceed to become sex offenders.
While I agree with these points, let us analyse the practicality of exercising censorship on pornography. Firstly, trying to exercise censorship of pornography on the Internet is absurd. There is not enough manpower or technology to monitor and restrict the web usage of the citizens, and it is nigh on impossible to prevent the Internet users access to all pornography sites in the World Wide Web. Even if they manage to do so, there will always be loopholes that will be discovered one day.
Even though censorship of pornographic magazines is possible, one has to take into consideration that those who are sexually desperate will eventually find a way to get hold of them, be it through buying via E-Bay or the black market.
The only thing we can do is to introduce sex education to children, and schools and parents should take a part in doing so. Inculcating the mindset that pornography is morally wrong may prove to be more effective and impactful to the children. However, if they refuse to heed the advices given and choose to go down the wrong path of watching pornography, they cannot blame anyone but themselves.
Ultimately, I do not think that exercising censorship on pornography will solve any problems. In order to protect the next generations from the vices of pornography, parents, and not the law, should take up the responsibility of educating them.
