Porn ban: Privacy under threat as nanny state looms large

Is India becoming a nanny state? The government’s ban on 857 pornographic websites indicates so. As the debate grows, three major talking points emerge: First, does the ban amount to an invasion of the private space of individuals by the authorities? Second, is it technologically feasible to impose the ban? And third, how far can the government go with bans, in other words, what is next on the to-be-banned list — books with erotic content, nude paintings and everything else someone in power considers inappropriate even for private consumption? As usual, the government’s crackdown elicits mixed reactions. While psychiatrists, and sex and relationship therapists welcomed the action, activists criticised it saying the government has no business in interfering in bedroom matters. Clifford W DeSilva, director of Goa Institute of Counselling (GIC), says pornography is like “drugs” for children. It dehumanises them. “It is addictive, just like drugs. Children who are exposed to pornography mostly become sexual deviants. Early consumption of pornography is related to greater involvement in deviant sexual practices, particularly rape. If you go through the confessional statements made by rapists and molesters, most of them claim to have been incited by exposure to pornography. Take the case of the 2012 Delhi gangrape. The rapists used the stimuli of pornography,” he told Firstpost. Asked why porn cannot be consumed in a normal relationship, DeSilva said, “Yes, it can. Porn is used to make sex lives more interesting. Many pornographic videos are very informative and often arousing as well. So it works well for some couples. But at the same time, it cannot be ignored that the consumption of pornography creates a strong desire for more violent material. It can raise people’s bedroom expectations. Women are asked to do things that are extreme and unnatural. Porn is okay as long as it has no impact on the feelings of men. But generally, it does not happen. It makes people sex addicts and they start seeing women only as sex objects.” [caption id=“attachment_2377928” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Picture used for representational purposes only. AFP[/caption] Sex and relationship educator Gunjan Sharma is completely opposed to DeSilva’s views. “Watching porn is an issue that belongs in people’s bedrooms, and that is not where the government wants to be, does it? It is only a source of enjoyment if adults do it with mutual consent,” she told Firstpost, wondering why there is a hue and cry over the issue in a country where “sex is celebrated”. But she is also strongly opposed the idea of child pornography. “There is a need for responsible consumption of pornography. I am also in support curbing child pornography, because that is absolutely non-consensual and highly damaging. The government should come up with an idea to block offensive sites where children were seen abused, but banning adult pornography is plain regressive,” she added. When her view on the argument that porn is ‘insulting’ to women as it turns them into ‘anonymous meat’ was sought, she said, “There is a need for responsible consumption of pornography. Banning or blocking is not at all a solution. Talking about issues of sexuality from an early age and debunking myths around it may be a solution!” Addressing the view that watching ‘perfect’ bodies of women in pornographic clips can give female partners an inferiority complex and put them off sex, she said, “I reject this argument that porn is responsible for the obsession with size, colour and what-have-you, because our Bollywood actresses in popular cinema and TV commercials are doing enough damage on that front anyway." But does pornography promote violent forms of sexual intercourse? “Absolutely not,” she said, “Had this been the case, people would have been negatively influenced by the virtual fighting of Bollywood films to replicate it in real life. How about a ban on that, now?" Rights activist Mansi Sharma went on to add that India is soon becoming another Pakistan. “Banning anything is not a solution. It only shows a mindset where ideology and thinking is forced on people. We are soon becoming another Pakistan. The day is not far when YouTube and other such sites are banned. Once you accept this culture, you become part of it,” she added. Human rights lawyer Waliullah Ahmed Laskar describes the ban on porn as an instance of “moral policing” and “government interference in the private life and personal liberty of citizens”. However, he says certain types of porn should be banned. For example, child porn, revenge porn, rape porn, non-consensual porn, porn with scenes depicting degradation or humiliation of women and men. “Without any definition of what constitutes pornography, the ban will be arbitrary. What will distinguish the erotic sculptures in Khajuraho or the depictions in the Kamasutra from porn? More generally, what is erotica or what is porn? There must be some criterion. For example, the age of actors, their consent in the acts — consent to be filmed and consent that the film may be circulated, equality of treatment of the actors on and off the screen in the industry, and the tricky questions of human dignity and non-humiliation of the actors,” he told Firstpost. When asked if the government had invoked Article 19(2) of the Constitution to justify its action, he said, “Morality and decency in private spheres are best left to the individuals. The State’s job should not be to act as moral police or even moral preacher. Maybe, religious and social moralists can do their job and preach about it. But, not the State. The government has coercive power which tends to be arbitrary by nature. Its intrusion into private life must not be allowed.”