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Rising threat of pornography
mazhar's net
IN the absence of appropriate laws to check it, pornography has grown into a vicious social menace and a grave threat to the safety and healthy growth of the youth and the children.
The demoralising impact of unchecked growth of the porno business with the help of CDs, porno websites and mobile phones on the juveniles has already cost the lives of a number of young people. This new danger to society is equally leaving its devastating impact on the community in the cities and rural areas alike. Video show business in particular has become the main carrier of the pornography in the rural areas.
Young people often unwittingly fall victim to traps set by criminals making a brisk business exploiting the technology available in the market. Unsuspecting women, young or adult, are sometimes preyed on in this manner even by their male friends or acquaintances and the videos thus taken find their place in the porno market or on the websites.
Different studies that interviewed dealers in porno materials and cyber café owners have found that computer repair shops, some porno websites on the Internet as well as videos recorded with the help of mobile phones are their sources of porno materials.
But how are we to fight this new menace out to swallow up society, especially the youth? The laws in existence are not specific to the problem at hand. The relevant section of the Penal Code, for instance, makes no mention of children. 'The Children Act 1974', too, is mum about the issue. The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Act 2006, on the other hand, has no provision to deal with offence committed by or against juveniles.
In the circumstances, the government needs to equip itself with appropriate laws and crime busting units to deal with this growing menace. The law-enforcement units may track down the sources of the crime through mounting closer watch on the cyber cafés, the electronic market, the local Internet service providers, and the video show shops. The threat that the mobile sets with built-in cameras pose should be dealt with through heightening watch on the children using those by teachers in the school and parents in the family.
Apart from policing, efforts should also be there to launch public awareness campaign against this mortal danger to society. The government's publicity wings, the media, various advocacy groups and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) should join hands in this awareness campaign.
However, the focus should be on plugging the routes through which pictures, films and videos on child porn infiltrate the websites and their distribution channels in the market. And the technology is already there to take care of this matter. A note of caution would not be out of place here. It is that while conducting the drive, utmost care is taken so that it does not turn into an excuse to slap any ban on the use of Internet, as it is the largest window of our access to instant information and knowledge from the world at large.
Source: The Daily Star
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