Defined as “films, magazines, writings, photographs or other materials that are sexually explicit and intended to cause sexual arousal”, ‘Pornography’ is certainly an integral part of the global information network. The more repressive societies have banned this flow of information for various ‘reasons’ – chief among them being the exposure of children to explicit sexual information. And now word is out that Sri Lanka is joining the coterie of countries that is slapping a ban on sites that the government deems ‘Pornographic’.

According to Wikipedia some areas of legal concern regarding adult pornography are:

Prohibiting certain or all types of pornography that are illegal within a government’s jurisdiction. For countries that do not prohibit all pornography, this might include pornography featuring violence or bestiality, for example.

Preventing those under the legal age (for most this means a minor under 18 or 21) from accessing pornographic content.

Enforcing laws designed to ensure that performers in pornography are of legal age.

This site indicates that:

12% of all websites are pornographic
25% of all search engine requests are pornographic
35% of all internet downloads are pornographic in nature
Every second, 28×258 internet users are viewing pornography
Every second, $89.00 is spent on internet porn
Every day, 266 new porn sites appear on the internet
Sex is the most search word on the internet
US revenue from internet porn in 2006 – $2.84 Billion
72% of internet porn users are men, 28% are women
70% of internet porn traffic occurs during the 9-5 workdays
There are an estimated 372 million porn web pages; 3% produced by the UK, 4% produced by Germany; 89% produced by the US
Most trafficked adult website: www . adultfriendfinder . com

Countries that ban pornographic sites:
Saudi Arabia, Iran, Bahrain, Egypt, UAE, Kuwait, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Kenya, India, Cuba, China,

Most visited websites (daily): #1 – MSN (220 Mil), #4 – YouTube (196Mil) , #49 – AdultFriendFinder (7.2 Mil), #145 NY Times (4.1Mil)

So it does appear that either reading about, or viewing ‘porn’ is a major pastime that is common to a large proportion of the global population. And who among us can honestly say that we have never accessed a ‘porn’ site or read or viewed stuff that is considered ‘pornographic’? Some of us do so out of curiosity, others out of a need for some form of titillation and yet others out of a compulsive urge to satisfy whatever it is that created the desire within the psyche.

Java gets pretty bored with what he has accessed so far and as a result has pretty much abandoned searches for porn sites, although recently – quite by accident, circumstances led him to watch a Sri Lankan produced porn DVD, which was riveting, to say the least. This Sinhala looking dude and his ‘co-star’ must have had a camera focused on them and running, as it seemed like they had to stay within the frame. But what they managed to accomplish ‘within the frame’ was extremely impressive, in that the stud performed an incredible variety of ‘moves’, one of which neither Java nor I had ever even thought of, let alone seen before. It was kind of an ‘educational’ DVD – in that respect!

But getting back to the crux of this post – ‘Pornography’ and whether it should be banned: It seems to both Java and yours truly that, in general, the flow of information must be unimpeded. That is a basic right in any democracy – period. The problem with ‘porn’ is that the extremes that are achieved with sites that feature children, violent sexual activities, and other forms of sexual content that display brutality, bloodshed and carnage, could possibly influence individuals to behave in ways that would be detrimental to themselves and to society in general. And in our view, this is the problem that needs to be carefully considered and dealt with in a manner that solves it adequately, so as to not infringe on the ‘rights’ of individuals who, although view ‘porn’ sites, are not a danger to themselves or to society.

How about that?!! Tricky, to say the least – any ideas on how to go???