Twelve percent of the total number of websites in the world is based on pornography. What is even more interesting is that the Internet pornography industry is run by Asian countries, notably China, South Korea and Japan. A total of 4.2 million porn websites were identified in 2006, capable of attracting 420 million views (based on internet-filter web review 2006).
This industry provides huge profits which exceeded US$97 billion in 2006. Returns in general are said to be far greater than well known giants such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo! And Apple even though the fee charged is low as 15 cents a day!
Out of this total, US$3,075.64 is spent every second specifically for pornography throughout the world and during the same period of time 28,258 viewers on the Internet view pornography, 372 internet users type out material related to porn from search engines, while a video is recorded every 39 minutes in the United States of America (internet-filter-review 2006).
Surveillance of phonographic content on the Internet is indeed difficult. Surveillance and censorship is difficult because almost every country has lost its boundary in this era of a world without boundaries.
This situation is further worsened by guarantees by the government not to censor Internet material in accordance with the Malaysia Bill of Guarantees (MSC) which is intended to encourage the growth of the industry in this country.
The Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) 1998 is weak in its enforcement and is only undertaken at random based on complaints.
This has been acknowledged by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) that out of 25 porn websites only two can be contained. There are no laws that can be applied to contain or close down the rest.
Censorship of the Internet incurs high cost. It is also difficult to undertake technically in comparison to the information media. To date it is estimated that 74 percent porn websites project themselves as safe websites which are easily accessible through search engines.
Studies have shown that cartoon search engines such as Pokemon, My Little Pony and Action Man are surrounded by hundreds of porn websites.
Even though censorship exists, it continues to be reported that the authorities have failed in censoring its overall content effectively.
“Consumer Report” reported in Mac 2001 that even though it was said that censorship was able to prevent children and students from viewing material that was prohibited, it still was unable to fulfil its functions effectively.
The prime cause is the inability to censoring Internet content effectively. Often content is viewed as being ‘very acceptable’ so much so that it is considered beneficial.
The problem also involves language because the majority of content in the market is produced in English only while material that is not suitable for children and youths in found in other languages such as the Malay language.
It cannot be denied that the world is faced with this phenomenon of pornography. The short term and long term effects will be witnessed notably in the behaviour of youths and grownups where pedophilia is expanding widely and which is often highlighted in the global media.
The world is aware that surveillance and censorship efforts have never been able to restrict groups from producing pornographic material on the Internet.
Factors such as not possessing concrete enforcement, the lack of religious foundations, as well as the opportunity to choose from countless cheap porn websites to acquire such material makes it possible for one group to bring about the destruction of society.
The Internet can be viewed as a two-edged knife. If it is put to bad use it will bring about loss, and if it is put to good use, it will most certainly bring about benefits to its users. |
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