Should, and Can, Porngate be Shut Tight?

  •   Sat, May 08 2021
  •   By John B Monteiro

May 8, 2021

“Consuming pornography does not lead to more sex, it leads to more porn. Much like eating McDonalds every day will accustom you to food that (although enjoyable) is essentially not food, pornography conditions the consumer to being satisfied with an impression of extreme sex rather than the real.”- Virginie Despentes (b1969), French writer and film-maker.

Many openly hate and secretly consume pornography and often make it to the media like in the following report from Germany put out by AP news agency on May 3, 2021and carried by Indian media on May 4.

German police bust darknet child porn network 'with 400,000 members'.

German police said Monday (3/5/21) they had shut down "one of the biggest darknet child pornography platforms in the world" and arrested four of its members in a series of raids in mid-April.

The platform, named as "Boystown", had existed since 2019, counted over 400,000 members and was "set up for the worldwide exchange of child pornography", German federal police said in a statement. The darknet forum allowed users to communicate with others and share graphic image and video content which included "serious sexual abuse of toddlers", the statement said.

Three men between the ages of 40 and 64 were arrested in seven raids in Germany, while a fourth suspect was detained in Paraguay on the request of German authorities. The suspect in Paraguay's Concepcion region, also a German citizen, is to be extradited back to Germany on the basis of an international arrest warrant issued by a court in Frankfurt. Three of the men are accused of having managed the platform as administrators, providing technical support and advice to members on how to avoid being discovered by the authorities, while another was "one of the platform's most active users", police said. Both "Boystown" and other chat platforms were taken offline following the raids.

Are Indians untouched by pornography? Far from it! It has even invaded the sacred precincts of legislature as instanced below.

The 2012 Karnataka video clip controversy, also referred to as Porngate, took place in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly where two ministers of the state cabinet resigned over claims of inappropriate conduct. It was alleged that they viewed a pornographic video on a mobile device while the legislature was in session. A little bit of background is in order.

In February 2012, Spring Zouk, an international festival described as a party, was attended by mostly foreign tourists near Malpe on St Mary’s Island. The event was coordinated to increase tourism. At this rave party, a video of tourists at the event having sex in public was shot and the viewing of this video became the subject of controversy.

At a session of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, a film, apparently shot from the press gallery, showed two cabinet ministers allegedly watching pornographic clips on a mobile phone. The ministers said that the video was an investigation of the behavior of foreign tourists at the party on St. Mary's Island, who were having sex in public and consuming drugs and alcohol at the rave organised by the state tourism department and others.

On February 8, the ministers offered resignation letters and the party accepted their resignations. Present Karnataka chief minister and then BJP party leader B S Yeddyurappa reprimanded them for their behavior.

An Indian news source claimed that the international media attention of the event was on how the members of the party who were caught viewing the video were in a party which was especially condemning of this sort of behavior..The public sought information about this event using Facebook Twitter and YouTube. The hashtag "porngate" was a top trending word on February 8, 2012 on social media site Twitter.

The All-India Democratic Women’ Association said one minister involved who has been a vocal advocate of dress codes for women, has been thoroughly exposed and the BJP is answerable for justifying and defending hypocrites who indulge in moral policing, while themselves violating all norms of decent behaviour.

The subject is open to many views. What are yours? Your response is welcome in the format given below. (Please scroll down).

Cock-tale

According to a Lucknow datelined news report (17/2/21) the Uttar Pradesh Police have hired a company to “keep an eye” on people’s internet search data to monitor those looking up pornographic content. The ‘UP Women Powerline 1090’ will be alerted if a person searches for pornographic material on the internet.

The project, which had previously been conducted in six districts, had received good response from the public. UP has about 11.6 million internet users as per estimates. As per the police sources, following the alerts, the police team will reach out to the person to prevent “crimes against women”.

Additional Director General of Police Neera Rawat said that in view of the increasing use of internet, the Powerline 1090 would also reach out to people to prevent crimes against women. Rawat added that the company was hired to keep an eye on what was being searched on the internet through data.

“Basically, it is meant to study the analytics of the internet. If a person watches pornography, the analytics team will get the information.” Those who search for pornography will receive an alert message and the information will be saved with the police as well. “The internet data will inform 1090 team if a person is searching for porn. The team will then send ‘awareness messages’ to the person.”

Is this an exotic project and a clever trap to blackmail the porn-searchers and also to fool the public and pocket State funds?

 

Also read:

 

 

 

 

 
By John B Monteiro
To submit your article / poem / short story to Daijiworld, please email it to news@daijiworld.com mentioning 'Article/poem submission for daijiworld' in the subject line. Please note the following:

  • The article / poem / short story should be original and previously unpublished in other websites except in the personal blog of the author. We will cross-check the originality of the article, and if found to be copied from another source in whole or in parts without appropriate acknowledgment, the submission will be rejected.
  • The author of the poem / article / short story should include a brief self-introduction limited to 500 characters and his/her recent picture (optional). Pictures relevant to the article may also be sent (optional), provided they are not bound by copyright. Travelogues should be sent along with relevant pictures not sourced from the Internet. Travelogues without relevant pictures will be rejected.
  • In case of a short story / article, the write-up should be at least one-and-a-half pages in word document in Times New Roman font 12 (or, about 700-800 words). Contributors are requested to keep their write-ups limited to a maximum of four pages. Longer write-ups may be sent in parts to publish in installments. Each installment should be sent within a week of the previous installment. A single poem sent for publication should be at least 3/4th of a page in length. Multiple short poems may be submitted for single publication.
  • All submissions should be in Microsoft Word format or text file. Pictures should not be larger than 1000 pixels in width, and of good resolution. Pictures should be attached separately in the mail and may be numbered if the author wants them to be placed in order.
  • Submission of the article / poem / short story does not automatically entail that it would be published. Daijiworld editors will examine each submission and decide on its acceptance/rejection purely based on merit.
  • Daijiworld reserves the right to edit the submission if necessary for grammar and spelling, without compromising on the author's tone and message.
  • Daijiworld reserves the right to reject submissions without prior notice. Mails/calls on the status of the submission will not be entertained. Contributors are requested to be patient.
  • The article / poem / short story should not be targeted directly or indirectly at any individual/group/community. Daijiworld will not assume responsibility for factual errors in the submission.
  • Once accepted, the article / poem / short story will be published as and when we have space. Publication may take up to four weeks from the date of submission of the write-up, depending on the number of submissions we receive. No author will be published twice in succession or twice within a fortnight.
  • Time-bound articles (example, on Mother's Day) should be sent at least a week in advance. Please specify the occasion as well as the date on which you would like it published while sending the write-up.

Comment on this article

  • John B. Monteiro, Bondel, Mangaluru

    Tue, May 11 2021

    Rohan, Mangalore: The analytics adventure in UP is double-edged and can be misused to blackmail the porn-searchers. Ben D’Souza Prabhu, Canada: Thank you for your boni response which is a masterpiece of evasion. Mohan Prabhu, Canada: Your first sentence sums it well. Exhausted by porn, there is no energy left or need to go out to commit sex crime. Kiran, Manipal: To the best of my memory (not very reliable at 83) you are also a boni respondent. Welcome aboard and stay connected. You have rightly articulated the objective and scope of this column which is running by the blessings of Daiji elders. Incidentally, t his column has heritage roots going back to half a century – starting with Larsen &Toubro where I was a communications professional since 1970 riding on journalistic background. It also ran in a Bombay monthly called Home Life. At that point a book containing selected “topic-essays” was published in Bombay under the title of “ Some Current Issues for Debate”. Little after coming to Mangalore, I published this column, as one of the three every week, in Vijaya Times which was later bought by Times of India and closed in a strategic move. Presently, apart from fortnightly column in Daijiworld, the column, specially tailored to students and younger readers is in Edex, the weekly (Monday) supplement of The New Indian Express which has 29 editions :

  • Kiran, Manipal

    Tue, May 11 2021

    Dear Mr Monteiro, I highly appreciate your writing style which has quoted sources well and is unbiased. It leads the reader to form opinions of their own rather than spoon feeding opinions to the readers. Especially in the topic you have written this is of utmost importance. It may come as a surprise but in India, almost everyone has actively looked for pornography. This is irrespective of the gender. However, in the open, people prefer to detest this in fear of social repercussions. Many psychologists argue that the more strict/conservative the society, it indirectly pressurizes people to look for alternatives to put out their frustrations. This can be seen very well in that Iraq and Egypt are two of the top porn consuming countries in the world; it is surprising that these societies are also known to be highly conservative in nature. If we look back at ancient Indian culture, kings and rulers have openly admired the human body and its beauty. This is supported by the various literature,sculptures and carvings of the previous era. However, today as a society we have evolved in a totally different direction. My argument is not sided with pornography, rather in freedom of privacy. If the state takes initiatives to curtail porn consumption, then it goes against the very fundamental right of privacy which is promised by our constitution to every citizen. I look forward for many more enlightening articles from you, Mr Monteiro which can challenge the reader to reflect and adopt multiple and different views to sensitive topics.

  • mohan prabhu, Mangalore/Ottawa, Canada

    Mon, May 10 2021

    These porn pictures apparently satisfy sex-starved males who crave for more and more, but it seldom leads to actual commission of offence. They do not go out to commit sex crimes. Pornography has changed in dimension; it used to be imported in cassettes and in one case, the Canadian Customs Department had asked me to rule whether a certain imported film was pornographic. I was then their law officer.It was so filthy that I just vomited and that was enough for the customs officer to seize it and ban it, and book the importer for crime. This was nearly fifty years ago. Boy, how the medium has changed! They used to reproduce the cassettes for sale or show in Adults Only places; now anyone can with the click of a button on the computer can download.

  • John, Mangalore

    Sun, May 09 2021

    Should be shut, more evil than good which encourages all sorts of immorality. Also, Divine message on family and pornography, is a communist tool for exploitation of family and young specially in the west in a message to John Leary dated Friday, December 30, 2016: (Feast of the Holy Family) Jesus said: “My people, you are seeing the greatest example to follow in My Holy Family of Me, My Blessed Mother, and St. Joseph. Your society today is destroying the family which should be the basic unit for bringing up children in love. You have listened and tolerated the devil’s call for same sex marriage, divorce, and couples living together in fornication without marriage. You know it is a mortal sin against the Sixth Commandment to commit homosexual acts and for having sex outside of true marriage in fornication. Yet by society tolerating these sinful actions with no shame, you are accepting the tearing down of marriage as an institution. If you wanted to destroy America in its love of God, love of country, and love of family, like the communists planned, you would destroy the family. The communists have planned to use sex exploitation in pornography, hard rock music, liberal teaching without God in the colleges, and drugs to destroy your country. You are seeing it happen before your eyes. Your country needs a spiritual renewal to put Me back into your society by coming to church every week, repenting of your sins, and praying more. You need to see sin and call it for what it is, without any ‘political correctness’. By restoring your morals, you can save America. If you do not change, America will leave the face of the earth as you know it.”

  • Ben D'Souza Prabhu, Mangalore, Bombay Bandra now in Canada

    Sat, May 08 2021

    It is a good thing dearMr Monteiro, you write well. Modern World is now rotating faster than what we thought earlier days. As you know, the coin has two sides and our Creator too has done that way ! It is difficult to say candidly one way or the other. Even our Supreme Court Judges may not be even prepared to say and advice us correctly. Why not we leave this issue to our own judgement ? Thank you for your suggestion !!

  • Rohan, Mangalore

    Sat, May 08 2021

    Very good informative article... The initiative of analytics of people who search such content and reforming them is a good initiative to prevent crimes. They may have data as to how many of them turn out to be such candidates from previous investigations. Nevertheless this part of the world wide web has turned out to be a nuisance for everyone in society from the young to old and also affects people in good social standing. It will be good if it is blocked...


Leave a Comment

Title: Should, and Can, Porngate be Shut Tight?



You have 2000 characters left.

Disclaimer:

Please write your correct name and email address. Kindly do not post any personal, abusive, defamatory, infringing, obscene, indecent, discriminatory or unlawful or similar comments. Daijiworld.com will not be responsible for any defamatory message posted under this article.

Please note that sending false messages to insult, defame, intimidate, mislead or deceive people or to intentionally cause public disorder is punishable under law. It is obligatory on Daijiworld to provide the IP address and other details of senders of such comments, to the authority concerned upon request.

Hence, sending offensive comments using daijiworld will be purely at your own risk, and in no way will Daijiworld.com be held responsible.