Porn free

Consuming porn was a risky business two decades ago. When the VCR descended on us around that time, according to a well-known video parlour, housewives were among the highest consumers, watching porn films while the children were away at school. But there was always the fear of being caught. Respectable people did not want to be seen asking for blue films. The most attractive element of the internet is that it allows the viewers access to porn without leaving the comfort and privacy of his home or work place.

And so, 30 years ago, when I had a run-in with the then Censor chief, who piously informed me that Indian Morality was not to be trifled with, and I shouted that censorship should be abolished completely, little did I realise then that it would be technology itself that would achieve this, and not changing morals. If you ask me, morals haven’t changed at all. My purist friends still maintain that just because adult content is easily available to us today and citizens tolerate it, it doesn’t mean that we as a society should accept it. One of them backs up his argument by saying that in Latur, college kids log on to porn sites in a seedy cyber cafe and indulge in group sex! They worry that these kids are becoming more vulnerable to HIV. The alarmists predict that the world is heading towards a catastrophic phase.

As I sit to write this, the number of internet users who consume pornography is growing, and so too is the revenue of the online pornography industry. It is said that the pornography industry is at the forefront of technological innovation and change. They are contributing to making the internet a faster and more economically viable medium for their business, and therefore contributing unwittingly to the progress of all the other businesses. I’m not arguing that illegal business should be left alone just because they are economically successful. But any effort to rein online smut should recognise the broader sociological and economic forces that are making the pornography industry a multi-billion dollar enterprise.

The cave paintings in Khajuraho and the carvings of Konarak couldn’t have thrived if the public of those times was unwilling to ‘purchase’ what was being offered. Centuries later, nothing has changed.

Cyber porn thrives because there is a consumer waiting to click his mouse. The existence of the pornography industry is a reflection of an indisputable human characteristic…our reproductive drive. Cyber porn is merely just a manifestation of its time.