Porn — the word itself creates ripples when one discusses about it in one’s friends circle. By definition, pornography means depiction of erotic behavior intended to cause sexual excitement. It may sound surprising though, but for some people, pornography has no negative effects and it may even deter sexual violence. Sounds weird? In 2014, the Government of India made an attempt to ban pornography over internet through ISPs (Internet Service Providers) operating in India. However, they failed to achieve it due to absence of legal or infrastructural framework support. The main contention of the government behind this ban was the fear that porn promotes and encourages sexual violence against women and it has a bad influence on young minds. A recent report released by an NGO clearly says that the average time that an Indian spends on pornographic sites is eight minutes and 28 seconds, which is more then the world average.
A few years ago, when internet was not an affordable medium, it used to be tough to access porn. But now, with 69.99 million cellular internet users across India (TRAI Report–Dec 2014), pornography is just one Google search away, and much of it is free. Also, age restrictions have now become meaningless, that almost all technological advances in communications and media have been used by perverted minds to create sexually-stimulating content, including texts, sounds and images, which have become progressively explicit over the years.
Pornography, which had hitherto reached only the literate, who could access it in novels, is now freely available to all. Over the years, the poor, who do not have the benefit of receiving education, especially higher education, have become the most vulnerable to the degenerating influence of erotic images shown in porn films. We should not forget that the basic idea of developing the internet was to create a tool for making knowledge accessible to all, regardless of the barriers of geography and economic backwardness. One cannot deny that the internet has certainly helped spread scientific knowledge by making information available to anyone anywhere in the world with access to a computer and an internet connection. But at the same time, the merchants of porn have also turned it into a conduit for morally corrupting content.
Today, porn has become so pervasive on the internet that it poses a big threat to children who are unwittingly exposed to it. While parental supervision and film certification rules help shield children to a large extent from pornography on television and in films, the internet, by its very nature, is beyond regulation and therefore there is no way to check the free availability of pornographic content on the net. In fact, such images influence our way of thinking and create an unhealthy attitude that can easily lead to crime.
Just ask yourself, ‘Can a person who takes pleasure in watching pornography be expected to look at women with a clean mind?’ Will he not try to attempt what he sees in porn films on someone who is vulnerable or naive?
We wring our hands helplessly at the growing incidence of crimes against women, but we should now understand the fact that sexual abuse is not just a matter of rape or indecent behaviour indulged in by an odd misguided person, but one reported to be rampant in homes, with the perpetrators in most cases being known to the victims. You never know what your brother, son or someone as close as your father figure might do. Hence, if we continue to turn a blind eye to this malaise, soon a time will come when even those of us who consider ourselves immune to it will become one of its victims. So, is there really a genuine solution to this addiction? Yes of course! By simply remaining in the consciousness that we are an eternal soul and not body. One can easily transform human love into spiritual energy by changing our feelings of lust into feelings of love