Pernahkah anda menonton PORNOGRAFI ???!

Pernahkah anda menonton PORNOGRAFI???! Jawapan anda mungkin ya, mungkin tidak. Mengapakah anda berasa malu dan ingin mengelak daripada mengaku bahawa anda pernah menonton pornografi, sekiranya anda memang PERNAH! Hal ini adalah kerana sejak kecil lagi kami diasuhkan dengan perspektif tradisional mengenai topik seks. Ini telah menyebabkan kita mempunyai perasaan malu untuk menjawab soalan ini. Apakah yang dimaksudkan dengan “pornografi”? Pornografi merupakan satu kelakuan seksual yang boleh dipersembahkan melalui media dalam pelbagai bentuk, contohnya lukisan, video, rakaman suara dan animasi. Selain itu, pornografi merupakan satu bidang yang boleh mengaut keuntungan.

Adakah anda terfikir mengapakah semakin senang bagi seseorang tersebut untuk akses kepada pornografi? Menurut kajian akses internet dan laman web pornografi yang dilakukan oleh Mohamad Musa Morshidi(2004), sebanyak 83.3%  daripada 60 orang pelajar Pengajian Sarjana Muda Sastera di Universiti Malaya pernah menonton pornografi. Ini telah menunjukkan peratusan yang amat tinggi dalam kalangan pelajar universiti dengan menggunakan teknologi komunikasi iaitu internet untuk mengakses kepada pornografi. Hal ini adalah kerana berlakunya penggunaan internet yang amat tinggi dalam kalangan pelajar. Mereka biasanya menggunakan internet untuk melayari kepada media sosial, contohnya instant messenger. Instant messenger merupakan satu alat komunikasi yang membolehkan pengguna untuk berkomunikasi antara satu sama lain dengan menggunakan perkataan, video, gambar dan juga webcam. Hal ini telah membolehkan pornografi dengan beigitu senangnya untuk disebarkan melalui alat komunikasi yang sedia ada.

Di samping itu, pornografi juga boleh diperolehi melalui telefon bimbit. Pengguna telefon bimbit sekarang boleh akses kepada internet melalui 3G dengan senang. Telefon bimbit pula merupakan salah satu alat komunikasi yang menemani pengguna sepanjang masa. Hal ini telah meningkatkan masa pengguna dengan melayari laman web pornografi.

Sebenarnya, terdapat beberapa kesan negatif terhadap penonton pornografi. Seseorang itu akan mengalami ketagihan terhadap pornografi sekiranya dia dibiarkan begitu sahaja. Hal ini akan menyebabkan terjejasnya dalam membina keluarga bahagia dan aktiviti seharian. Hal ini kerana seseorang itu akan cuba meniru aksi yang diajar dalam pornografi yang tidak akan tercapai dalam realiti. Peniruan aksi dalam pornografi akan menyebabkan berlakunya kecederaan dari segi fizikal dan mental untuk kedua-dua pihak. Jadi pornografi hanya akan membawa keburukan kepada penonton.

Apakah yang harus masyarakat lakukan sekiranya ingin mengelakkan pornografi disampaikan melalui internet kepada pengguna internet yang berusia muda? Sebenarnya perisian penapis laman web pornografi boleh menyekat laman web pornografi. Menurut Hofstetter(2001), perisian penapis adalah penapis yang boleh mengimbas kepada data untuk jenis kandungan yang tertentu. Perisian penapis ini telah digunakan oleh sistem pendidikan  negara China pada penapis pelayan(servis) dalam internet. Hal ini kerana kurang daripada 50% pelajar memperuntukkan masa mereka di pembelajaran, tetapi mereka telah menggunakan internet untuk melayari laman web pornografi. Selain itu, ibu bapa dan pihak sekolah juga boleh menggunakan ICRAfilter yang ada di Internet Explorer supaya anak-anak atau pelajar-pelajar tidak terdedah kepada pornografi.

Secara kesimpulannya, teknologi komunikasi telah menyediakan satu ruang komunikasi yang senang untuk golongan belia, tetapi ia juga merupakan satu alat yang membawa pornografi kepada golongan belia.

Technology: Empowering youth or enhancing the spread of pornography addiction?

When it comes to pornography, it involves three parties. First, there’s the ‘creators’, those who produce these images. Then there’s the ‘ distributors’, who distribute these images commercially or non-commercially. Lastly, the ‘possessors’, people who view these images.

According to Dines and Mantilla (2007), the pornography industry has been around since 1953 when Playboy published its first edition. Playboy made a big hit in the pornographic industry, generating revenues large enough to attract others to realise that this industry sells. These days, revenues are up to $12 billion in the United States. 

Patchen Barss (2010), a Canadian journalist, carried out a research entitled ‘The Erotic Engine: how pornography has powered mass communication from Gutenberg to Google’. His research shows how the pornography industry developed technologies even from the start of the printing press, up to today, with the Internet.

According to Barss, Pietro Arentino and Francis Rabelais' works were filled with engravings of sexual positions and stories of exposed genitals. Rabelais' boast in Gargantua and Pantagruel that "more copies of it have been sold by the printers in two months than there will be of the Bible in nine years" (Meredith, 1974). Even photography when first discovered, was used to take nude and sexual photographs.

When Video Cassette Recording (VCR) was innovated, there were two competing formats, JVC’s Video Home System (VHS) and Sony’s Betamax. Betamax had a better format and video quality compared to VHS. The pornography industries who were early adopters of the VCR used the VHS format, despite having known that it had a poor quality than Betamax. They went for VHS because it had two hours of recording time and was cheaper compared to Betamax’s one hour of recording time. This impact led to VHS becoming the industry standard (Klein, 2006). About 150 years later in 1998, Sony admitted that Betamax lost its war to VHS because of Sony’s refusal to corporate with the pornography industry (Dennis, 2004).

The innovation of VCR provided people with more privacy. They could watch pornography at home and did not have to go to the store to buy pornographic magazines or watch adult films in the cinema.

Today, with the Internet it is undoubtedly that the pornography industry is making more money than before. This industry goes beyond the United States, to many other countries which makes up a larger audience than it previously did. Entrepreneurs are able to expand their market and many take on the role of commercializing sex through pornography while people feed on it.

Talk about having privacy and be in the comfort of home, the Internet has enabled people to view pornography whenever they want, even behind closed doors. With the help of search engines, pornographic sites are just a click away. According to John Arlidge who wrote ‘The dirty secret that drives new technology: it's porn’ in The Guardian, says that “When the web was launched, the most popular word searches were 'sex' and 'porn' and it's still true..”            

The technology of 3G on mobile phones with the accessibility to the Internet has also enabled pornographic videos and images to be downloaded and viewed in a more discreet manner. What is known as ‘sexting’ (Cell phone + Sex + Text), where pornographic material can be exchanged and shared.

With the current technology at hand, the Internet, CD-ROMs and 3G, it has become easier for Malaysians to get hold of pornographic materials and be addicted to pornography.  In the piracy business, VCD and DVD sellers are selling pirated movies as a front, but behind the scenes they sell pornography on VCD and DVD. 

In Ipoh, 130,000 pieces of pirated and pornographic CDs and DVDs worth more than RM700, 000 were destroyed by the Perak contingent police in October this year, as reported by the Borneo Post. These were found during the 144 raids were carried out and 131 sellers were detained.

Malaysians are not only viewing pornographic materials through the Internet, but also uploading pornographic materials. Video recorders or mobile phones and cameras with video recording functions, has made that possible. The Daily News Analysis reported in 2010 that Malaysian websites and personal blogs contained obscene content such as pornographic video clips or images, including personal photos. As of June 16 that year, about 202 complains on this has been received by The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).

Having pornographic materials available and accessible, youths who are known to be well versed with technology, can gain access to them. It is no wonder that social issues concerning youth today is not just about playing truant in school, stealing or bullying. Watching pornography and being addicted to it is now seen as a social issue youths today face.

In a case study on ‘Communication and advocacy strategies about adolescent reproductive and sexual health’ by Maru Huang, she quoted that ‘among Malaysian adolescents aged 14-15, 50% have read pornographic materials, 44% have seen pornographic images from magazines or videos, and some have done so as early as the age of nine (NFPDB, 1998). She also quoted Rahim (1994) that ‘among the youth “lazing” in various places of entertainment, 40% knew of friends who have watched “blue films”, 39% knew of friends who have read pornographic magazines, and 18% have friends who have engaged in premarital sex.’

For these reasons, it has come to the attention of the government to take action by preventing youth from gaining access to pornographic material through the Internet. The government has blocked websites which contains pornographic materials in educational institutions run by the government, such as schools and universities.

Nevertheless, last year, The Star quoted a study by Universiti Putra Malaysia’s Social Science Institute that young urban Malays between the ages of 13-19 were found to be frequent visitors to pornographic websites at cyber cafes. This questions the effectiveness and sustainability of measures taken by the government.

As much as technology has many benefits to offer in empowering youth with information, technology enhances the spread of youth viewing pornographic material and addiction towards it.