THE issue of pornography has been in the news lately with members of the public expressing concern at what appears to be a significant growth in the home-sourced product.
Yesterday The National carried some related comments from the Chief Censor at the Censorship Office.
Steven Mala expressed dissatisfaction at the poor funding of his office and added that the 18-years old Censorship Act was in dire need of revision.
That can hardly come as a surprise; technology has moved ahead in leaps and bounds since the Act was passed by Parliament.
As we commented earlier in these columns, pornography is now readily available to most people in our country; with that availability has come a changed attitude to sexually explicit materials and to sex in general.
It is not so long ago – and in some rural areas it remains true today – that even discussion of sexual matters simply did not take place.
Along with that self-imposed societal embargo came many legends and myths, stories and beliefs.
The mass invasion of PNG by foreigners that began in earnest a little more than 100 years ago, brought with it a wide range of differing attitudes towards sex.
The broadest and most open views of the subject, expressed in writing and conversation and put into practice in personal relations appeared to be the hallmark of the new arrivals, with the marked exception of the missionaries, whose numbers were at least as plentiful as the adventurers, planters and miners.
The latter group appeared to be even more rigid in their attitudes towards the public expression and discussion of sexual matters than their island hosts.
The local exceptions were one or two areas of the country that achieved a reputation for a relaxed and open attitude towards the issue; the Milne Bay province and particularly the Trobriand Islands became known as the islands of love.
In the ensuing years, interrupted by two world wars, little changed, but gradually overseas attitudes began to be adopted in PNG.
While missionaries threw up their hands in horror, the more permissive outside world of the sixties began to influence sexual behaviour and beliefs in PNG.
At the same time huge advances in technology meant that it was now possible to create video tapes and that their content would be a matter for those who made them.
There was no system in place to monitor such activity and it was difficult to see how one could be established.
So while developed nations were dismantling their censorship systems, we in PNG decided to install our own.
The concept was to try and stem what was seen as a flood of pornography and obscenity from overseas.
Customs officers were given a new brief to closely watch incoming passengers and confiscate imported sex videos, books, magazines and any pieces of equipment deemed sexual in purpose.
This achieved little more than a handful of prosecutions and fines.
The Chief Censor and his office were delegated with the task of checking and classifying all videos and films imported into the country – a huge job in an era where video clubs were springing up all over the country.
Today, the internet with its vast store of pornography and violence is available to anyone who can access a computer.
That access leads to the printing and distribution of material and the burning of pornographic movies onto disc.
The development of digital cameras and recording equipment has meant that the creation of locally generated pornography is simplicity itself. Whether pornography fuels rape, incest and sexual assault is debatable.
It seems to us that there are only two solutions.
One is to follow overseas practice and simply abolish censorship; in its present form it cannot perform any worthwhile function.
The other is for the Government to realistically fund the Board and attempt to stem the flow by whatever draconian means it sees fit – a task likely to be unpopular, daunting in the extreme and finally pointless.
Why blame the technology that makes tangible the imagination of human beings?
If our society sees pornography as unacceptable, then address the way in which our society teaches moral values to the young.