CHENNAI: Over three lakh students aged between 16 and 21 years watch rape videos every single day in Chennai, according to the findings of a survey conducted by Rescue, an NGO that works on social issues. The survey also found out that 84 per cent of those in the age group called porn an addiction, just like drugs.
After the Union government recently banned Internet pornography and humour, and subsequently lifted the ban, activists insist that the former decision was the right one and that all 857 porn sites must be blocked. “We can no longer deny the link between youngsters watching rape and porn videos and the ever-increasing figures of violent rape and abuse in India,” said Abhishek Clifford, CEO of Rescue and a statistics lecturer in London.
The survey was carried out in 10 schools and colleges in Chennai among 300 students. It was found that 75 per cent students watched seven hours of sex videos every week right from studying in class IX, the videos included child pornography and rape. Among college students, 44 per cent watched 18 videos of violent porn, rape and gang rape every week.
Extrapolating these figures to the population, it means that 21,000 students start watching rape videos every year in Chennai alone. The survey has also found that 62 per cent of students who watched rape actually desired to do it in real life. “Even if 10 per cent of them act on this desire, we still end up producing 1,300 rapists each year,” Clifford pointed out. Like commercials influence our decisions about which product to buy porn, which prematurely introduces children to sexual desires and sensations, influences their actions.
Members of Rescue have made a few other recommendations: inclusion of cyber ethics as part of first and second year syllabus of college students; installation of porn-blocking software in cyber cafes, as they provide easy access to pornographic content; and creating awareness among parents about the ease with which their children could access porn, and the psychological impact.
“If a child is caught watching porn, he or she must not be punished, instead the parents need to sit and talk to him/her. That would make the maximum difference. We censor films, so why not porn? It would help bring down a lot of crimes in the country,” Abhishek said.