If the Ministry of Women’s Affairs has its way, photos of naked Cambodian celebrities won’t be appearing on Cambodian mobile phones and computer screens much longer.
The ministry will today host a news conference announcing an interministerial meeting to brainstorm ways to fight porn in the wake of a media frenzy about the distribution of nude photos of celebrities on mobile phones.
The Ministry of Women’s Affairs plans to work on educating school students about the allegedly heinous effects of pornography.
“Our measures will focus on education in schools that emphasizes our culture and traditions,” Minister of Women’s Affairs Ung Kantha Phavy said.
But according to some observers, the ministry faces an uphill battle.
Prince Sisowath Kola Chat, secretary of state for the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, said that it is difficult to catch digital pornographers.
“The technology is too modern,” he said. “We don’t know where to arrest those people.”
He said his ministry is focusing most of its energies on keeping pornography off Cambodian movie screens, and has taken a series of measures to that effect.
Keo Thea, deputy police chief of the Phnom Penh municipal Anti-trafficking and Juvenile Protection Unit, also said that tech-savvy pornographers are hard to apprehend. “We have not reached the level to arrest those people yet,” he said.
Chea Vannath, president of the Center for Social Development, said concern about high-tech porn could be misplaced.
While pornographic videos shown in coffee shops and movie theaters may lead to increased cases of rape, naked photos on mobile phones are relatively innocuous, she said.
In any event, she added, prostitution and the phenomenon of wealthy men taking younger mistresses are a more pressing issue.
“Everyone makes a lot of noise about how young people pass their time,” she said. “But they do not see, or do not want to see, what the adults are doing and not just watching.”
(Additional reporting by Michael Cowden)
