During the past decade, there seems to have been a mainstreaming of pornography in the mass culture, for instance, in music videos and women’s literature. Continuous advancements in technology have made Internet pornography increasingly more accessible to young adults worldwide. Every civilized society has certain rules and regulations, constitutions, laws and religious customs and culture according to which the people live there although the customs and traditions of one society may be different from another. The advent of technology especial social media platforms has revolutionized the process of information creation, dissemination and consumption. But highly debated, pornography consumption on social media is its actual reality. Pornography is interpreted differently in every society. This means that pornography or nudity is not viewed in the same way in every society, nor do its meanings are the same. Obscenity in one society can be entertainment in another, so far no definite and comprehensive definition of obscenity has been found. Content shown on TV channels and social media can be obscene for one society and entertaining for others. Our judiciary has banned pornography but so far it has not been able to define and interpret pornographic material. The fact is that so far there is no clear definition and interpretation of pornography in our constitution. The national tragedy of our society is that we are accustomed to playing with words. Today we live in a world where the number one app right now for teenagers is Snapchat – an app that allows you to take a photo or video of yourself and send it to your friends and in 10 seconds, it disappears. Snapchat knows that the majority of their audience is under 16, and some are using it to send inappropriate pictures of themselves. Facebook just offered to buy Snapchat for $3 billion, just because they want that younger demographic. They know what Snapchat’s for. We live in a society that rewards companies like that, even though we know that they sometimes encourage bad behavior. The online world has skewed our expectations and our view of the world. We place more value on how many likes that is going to get or how many Facebook friends I have than our face-to-face interactions. We live in a world that is so connected and thus can FaceTime with someone in a different country. Some say we are the most connected generation of all time. But I think we are the most disconnected. Because that image you just got from that girl on Snapchat that disappears doesn’t have a connection. While I don’t think these are all bad things, the Internet, social media, created this desire in us for something that is a fantasy.
According to a recent research report, India is one of the few countries where more than 75% of the young girls and boys like to watch pornographic videos, programs and pictures on social networks. Drama shown in the media and advertisements about women’s products are largely based on obscene words which inculcate bad thoughts and attitudes in young minds as such the younger generation is being affected and sexually exploited. Social media platforms like Face book, YouTube and other websites and networks are full of the most obscene videos and advertisements. Various commercial organizations pay for these social media sites to advertise. In fact, their purpose is to bring people to their specific website where things are bought and sold online. The most heinous act in this regard is the advertisement of something related to women with pornographic pictures. If you use Facebook, you will see such ads after a few posts on the timeline. There are even lots of sex toy ads too. You may not believe it, but an African country has legislated in this regard because these toys have become so popular with them that no young person is ready to marry or maybe not fit to marry. These sex toys are now readily available and often contain advertisements with their clear and prominent pictures. Any cognizant person can estimate the effects of this fashion on the society. Thus the need of the hour is that all such obscene shows, advertisements, should be banned immediately. Although 100% positive results cannot be achieved by banning any channel. As we present ourselves as decent, innocent and religious in front of others, but inside us is full of hypocrisy. If we are really innocent or religious then we and our religious class should not have bullying, corruption, looting, adultery and murder. We need to be educated and trained in patriotism and love and tolerance for the nation. Only positive state measures, training and education can save the people of the society from the obscenity that is on their minds. We can never be morally strong unless our education and training are so strong and enviable. If the media is banned then people will be looking for new ways and this will be a failure of our civilization. We have to abide by a code of conduct and live in our society and accept social restrictions and it is imperative that we strictly adhere to them. In past, the younger generation used to secretly watch pornographic material on videotape recorders for their sexual gratification and entertainment because of the restrictions imposed which were not accepted by our young generation. But today content presented on social media is in fact a social reflection of our own society. Everyone is now allowed on social media to engage in any type of activity including robbery, theft, adultery, murder, an actress’s bedroom and un-parliamentary activities, semi-nude dancing, or different sexual movements of women and men, which are taken as reflection of modern and advanced life. In fact, they reflect the minds of the people in our society that are usually made from mobile phones and we look for the content that we want to see. Social media is full of good and bad things, now it’s up to us what we want to see. Social media is a direct way to educate people, but they are so engrossed in the race for money that they have nothing to do with the society and the people. While growing pornography is a source of concern for the younger generation, there are also dangers that the next generation will not be able to live without being affected by it. It is imperative to provide a healthy environment to protect the young generation from this epidemic and keep them mentally safe. The biggest misfortune is that our children are not properly brought up and neither are our educational institutions. I am keeping in view the character building of children which is eroding moral values in our society. Lack of extra-curricular activities for children and young generation is ruining their future and energies. Our educational institutions have become money-making machines. Due to which the training of children is not considered and our untrained generation will be the cause of decline for our society. Remember, it’s not only the porn we watch but also the porn that watches us. One thing we must realize is that: we should either kill our addiction otherwise our addiction will eventually kill us.
(The author is Assistant Professor Chemistry -Selection Grade at Govt. Degree College Chatroo Kishtwar. Views are his own)
