The government of the Philippines blocked a number of popular porn sites since Jan 14, pursuant to Republic Act 9775, The Anti-Child Pornography Law.
Child pornography is unacceptable. That’s not even a debate according to our social norms. However, blocking the entire porn websites (including those sites that don’t represent child pornography) sparks a discussion.
Entertainment has always been part of our lives. In general, it provides us pleasure; it gives us ideas; it teaches us to express; it makes us reflect and; helps us to cope as well. Humans are made up of hormones, and some of these hormones are responsible helping us act like humans, and that includes sex. Sex is part of human nature. Pornography is a sex entertainment.
There’s nothing wrong implementing the law, especially if it has something to do with child pornography. However, aiming to block the entire industry could raise some doubts because it seems like things happened at the “right time”:
- The government has more than enough reasons to block these websites because it is long overdue anyway.
- The unemployment rate is getting lower. And based on the 4th quarter of 2016 SWS Survey, 44% of families considering themselves as poor – this is a 6-point below the 50% average of 2015.
- Based on 2016 statistics year-review released by Pornhub, Filipinos spent longer on the site than anyone else, averaging 12 minutes and 45 seconds per visit. Click here for more details. We don’t think the Philippines’ internet speed was weighed on this statistics. Meaning, it might end up longer time per visit due to slower than the average internet speed (perhaps applicable in some areas).
Does this have something to do with protecting our image as Filipinos? It’s not surprising that the majority of our leaders/regulators believe that watching porn is still something “deviant” to them. We’re not saying that it’s for everybody, but it apparently caters the needs of some law-abiding citizens.
What if it’s about straightening some of our fellow-citizens out there who are negatively affected by such movies as well? Or, probably this is just one of those consequences while cracking down child pornography.
Given a strong demand, with better purchasing power, and with our desire to comply with the law, begs the question that perhaps we should start regulating it.
Below are few suggestions to do that:
- Porn sites (including cybersex venues) should file a legal statement stating participants involved are of legal age providing consent performing such activities to be registered (to be allowed in our ISPs). Of course, violating that legal statement would pose penalties for that porn business such as settlements to our government. Part of that settlement would be shared with the whistleblower/s.
- In order to operate in the Philippines’ virtual territory, porn businesses should pay a 1-time registration fee, a license fee which is renewable every year, and maybe a refundable security deposit (or consider the liability insurance they already have) if in case these porn businesses refused to adhere to the settlement once found guilty because majority of these sites are based overseas. Licenses can be revoked at any time without any reimbursement or whatsoever once found guilty of representing child pornography.
- These legal or registered porn sites are expected to require a payment from its viewers as subscription fees or as pay-per-view. This is positive because most of the paid porn websites don’t contain tons of computer viruses – at least not being placed by site owners and we also believe that a person can afford such things for a reason (their choice of purchase would be a different story). This is not about discrimination towards the poor and favoring the rich. This is about those individuals who are willing to pay and those who are not. Example, Mr. Tan is rich enough to be considered as rich, but for whatever reason, he’s not willing to pay to watch porn. Because it is a paid subscription, it will be taxed as well – money to the government.
- Security features such as anti-cloning should be applied to access porn sites. Meaning it discourages subscribers to share their passwords or access codes to others by limiting the number of devices (e.g. 2) where someone can watch those porn movies.
- Blocking porn sites will hurt piracy as well. Therefore, porn videos should not be downloadable or could be downloadable but should have a security feature that prohibits file transfer to another device. This could be bad news for some subscribers, but of course, it’s the price of subscription fees would weigh much to the subscribers’ satisfaction anyway.
- Subscribers should agree that they’re 18 years old and above (of course), using a credit card (primary cardholders ONLY), and a code will be sent to their mobile phones upon completion of the transaction.
- For entrepreneurial individuals such as (let’s just call him) Mang Bobot, who happens to subscribe for unlimited access to various sites, and decides to sell tickets or collect money for viewing time to access his subscription/s in a certain place (like his house) creating a movie room. If it involved minor/s, he should be placed automatically behind bars once proven guilty with a certain amount of fine. If no minor/s involved, he should be banned from accessing the site/s and has to pay a fine as well. Practically, this is one of the important reasons why porn sites should be paid because subscribers who don’t mind paying for the service are the ones who can likely absorb the fine.
- (And the list goes on… Add some more…)
Are porn sites going to be inaccessible for those who aren’t willing to pay? Not really, there will be some short clips of promotional videos up to a maximum of 5-10 minutes depending on how generous the site owner is. That should be enough for someone’s daily dose! The shorter the video, the easier to recall. – Right? Absolutely. Uhuh (wink).
Readiness, Relevance, and Reactions.
What if some of our fellow citizens want to participate in this porn industry (as artists, producers, directors, etc.)? Well, we are not sure we are prepared for that (*knowing that it’s not expected for our women to be concerned about blocking these porn sites) or would it be necessary for us to be ready for that in the first place? There’s nothing wrong in keeping an environment that discourages our participation.
However, some of the Filipinas (Filipino female) are already doing it as amateur artists anyway. In doing porn vids, at least they DON’T HAVE to: work on the streets ’til dawn (exposing themselves to the dangers of the streets at night); bare themselves to consistent smoke of cigarettes while working in the bar; work sleepless nights drinking alcoholic beverages and/or smoking (for those who are smokers) while in the bar; exposing themselves to individuals with unknown past medical histories or unknown current medical conditions (STIs, and other contagious diseases like Tuberculosis, Upper Respiratory Tract Infections, and Skin infections); and live a consistent number of nights per week with a workplace environment that’s dragging for someone to value him/herself. Assuming they get paid right (which will be regulated as well for tax purposes – there should be a minimum pay while adhering that the output of vids should not portray “an abuse”), these women don’t have to work every night, they’ll only work maybe once every quarter or depends on the demand. This means that they’ll have a chance to experience the benefits keeping themselves apart from health hazards by having enough sleep at night; lesser exposure to cigarette smoke; getting apart from the temptation of drinking alcoholic beverages; being absent from the dangers of the streets; more available time for them to study online (as they might suffer from social treatment if studying on campus); having ample time for their family or for their kids (if they have any); not getting obliged to expose themselves to uncontrolled number of individuals with unknown past / current medical condition; and having an incentive to get checked regularly as part of the qualifications. Not to mention that this is a short-lived career, consider financial education as mandatory.
Making it legit would require participants adhere to the regulations to get or remain qualified, then tax them accordingly.
Tax money would then help fund things such as; 1) the technology necessary to block non-registered sites, illegal sites, and other means that provide access to those unwelcome sites; 2) the screening programs required for porn artists; 3) the administrative costs running this program and; 4) the authorities busting offenders. Then the rest of the money can be invested somewhere or help pay government’s debt obligations.
This would be good for porn website owners doing business with the Philippines as well. The money collected from registration fees and licenses will be used to block unregistered and illegal sites. Meaning, this would help deter their “unnecessary” competition as well.
Here’s the other side of the coin.
Generally (not explicitly in the Philippines), with a population of having high poverty rate and less human development should provide enough reasons that citizens are not ready for this. It’s different with the citizens of developed countries participating in the porn industry; mostly they’re not as impoverished as the participants of the developing countries. And by putting it in terms of the number of participants, developing nations cannot afford that kind of loss of talent, unless it’s just part of someone’s sideline, then that would be a different story. As per typical Filipinos; for some, it’s a blessing in disguise, and for others, it matters less but would prefer not going into that direction of participating in the industry as something like “it’s totally fine.” Remember, we’re not westerners. They may have a substantial influence on us, but our upbringing is still different from them.
Just imagine how it’s going to be if it would not be surprising anymore seeing our favorite porn artists shopping with us in the mall, lining up with us in some convenience store, or see them toggling something on their mobile phones while waiting for their cars to get washed. This is not about feeling uncomfortable seeing them or discriminating them on what they do; it’s all about seeing them almost everywhere. And as we see different faces of them everywhere, that would obviously mean there’s a lot of them. We’re not going to conclude with the discussion by labeling it as immoral (we will leave that for the readers to digest). Instead, we’re more keen on figuring out if it works or not. Going back, people, in general, would get this sort of encouragement engaging with this job. And as we all know, it doesn’t require pressing education to participate in this sector – at least for an artist. Because not everybody knows that it takes effort and patience to realize one’s potentials (not to mention its financial cost at some point), talents and the labor force necessary for a well-functioning society are most likely going to put into waste. And besides, life is NOT much about “fu¢
We all watch porn; we don’t acknowledge it. Porn exists in a parallel universe, a shadowy otherworld. When you force anything into the shadows and underground, you make it a lot easier for bad things to happen, and a lot harder for good things to happen. – Cindy Gallop
*In the case of the Philippines, we can’t expect our women are engaging in this discussion as being PRO porn existence (not child pornography) as of now. If in case they’re interested, we highly recommend hiding their identities. You know, not all out there are civilized enough receiving the impression of women believing in porn. Be careful.
The more that we block non-child pornographic sites, the more likely Filipinos (including minors) are going to be more interested in it in the long run and will find ways to access it which might include sites containing child porn (whether by accident or intentional). That’s just part of human nature – hormones collaborating with curiosity at work. Worse is, adults would giggle, express disgust, or even show some amazement when exposed to pornographic materials as if it’s one hell of a big deal. That looks ignorance! Actions based on ignorance are often detrimental, if not, treacherous. Overall, we can’t expect to generate sound interventions based on hypocrite reasons.
J. Letre
Other sources:
Pornhub Insights: Pornhub’s 2016 Year in Review by Pornhub, Jan 4, 2017
News: Some porn sites blocked in PH by Rappler, Jan 14, 2017
News: Popular porn sites blocked in Philippines by BBC, Jan 16, 2017
News: Philippines government bans Pornhub just weeks after it was revealed that Filipinos spent more time on the site than any other nation by Daily Mail, Jan 16, 2017
Quote from Cindy Gallop: 11 Quotes That Will Completely Change The Way You Think About Porn by Rachel Grate via Connections.Mic, Apr 06, 2015
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