Ministry of Pornography hard at work

Pornography is in the news again, thanks to Thailand's Ministry of Culture, which seems to have less to do with actually promoting Thai culture and more to do with trying to regulate morals.

In a story yesterday, the ministry's Cultural Watch Centre said Bangkok girls are warped by pornography.

"Some female students upload pictures of themselves having sex and other nude pictures so other people can see them, because they think it's cool," the centre's chief, Ladda Thangsupachai, told The Nation.

She said young urbanites are getting a distorted notion of sexuality due to the easy access to pornographic materials via the Internet and mobile phones.

Thai values, in which women are expected to preserve their virginity and display sexual correctness, are being replaced by an obscene and vigorous sexual expression, she said.

"[Bangkok girls] set the example of a free-sex society that will lead to premarital pregnancies, rape and crime," Ladda said. "We found that young people of other regions [outside Bangkok] did not have such a serious problem because of their limited access to media due to poverty or distant locations."

The center has been conducting seminars as part of its anti-pornography campaign, with the final in the series on June 16 at the Thailand Cultural Center.

The center will be seeking more government funding to crack down on porn, and it also proposes to set up Cultural Watch Centers be set up at all schools.

The Culture Ministry also is working to clean up the display of pornography in public places, according to another story.

Among the targets are comic books, such as Japanese paperbacks, that are popular with youths. Says said the ironically titled Vice Culture Minister Weerasak Khowsurat:

Especially for children and youth cartoon books, we'll force the price up. Now a lewd cartoon book costs 35 baht and up, which kids can afford. If we push the price higher then eventually they'll disappear. The next step will be to ban advertising of sex goods in general publications.

Newsstands will be required to hide the racy covers of adult magazines from the sight of passers-by. The ministry would seek help from police to enforce this.

Also, a list of 40 offensive websites has been sent to the Information and Communications Technology Ministry to block access.

Police Colonel Surat Udomrat, commander of the Children and Youth Welfare Division, said that arresting operators of pornographic websites, which allow viewing by underage surfers, was difficult. The country did not have clear regulations regarding the matter, plus advances in technology made it hard for police to catch up, he said.

"Many of the obscene online games police cannot yet reach to control. Police also can't arrest the senders of obscene pictures via mobile phones."

I also saw a story somewhere recently that said the Ministry of Culture would be trying to crack down on pornographic DVDs and CDs being sold on the street. But I was out on the main tourist strip of Sukhumvit Road last week, and the bootleg porno dealers are still our there. And down on Silom Road, I am usually approached by hawkers trying to get me to look at "sexy movies".

I find news about this relatively new Ministry of Culture compelling. They will start by going after porn. Soon I fear they will cross the line and target films with gay themes or drug use, stifling the creativity of the country's filmmakers.

The ministry already succeeded in having DVDs of Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Blissfully Yours removed from stores because if its explicit (hetero)sexuality. It was unfairly lumped in with a lot of low-grade soft-core porn titles. Now the director has won a Cannes Jury Prize for his latest film, Tropical Malady, which has gay themes. I wonder if it will actually be shown in Thailand?

Meanwhile, the ministry seeks to stifle free expression of Thai people by regulating what they send on their phones. Perhaps even what people wear will be targeted. These days, it's not uncommon to see a young teenage Thai girl wearing a tight, low-cut T-shirt that says "Porn Star" on it or has the Playboy bunny emblem.

This fashion trend is a leftover from the "white trash chic" phenomenon that swept the US a while back. So along with trashy T-shirts and ripped-up, low-rise jeans, there are truckers caps.

Thailand is usually several months or years behind Japan or the US on fashions, so in the coming months the trends will change. Technology will change. The efforts of the Ministry of Culture will continue to evolve to try and meet the challenge.

I have faith that the good people of Thailand will stay ahead of it, but I still fear this ministry and am suspicious of any moves it makes to try and regulate morals and freedom of expression.