Like most of us who receive the latest metro-gossip on WhatsApp and Facebook, you probably came upon the story of 28 minors that were caught at a “naked party” in the Westgate suburb of Harare in Zimbabwe. Many in the Zimbabwean society have questioned the minors unacceptable behavior.
Where had the minors learnt of naked parties ? Were they just being ‘innovative’ by hosting a naked party instead of the traditional party characterized by music and dance ?
Its easy for anyone these days to point out that the youth everywhere, and even in, Zimbabwe are exposed to indecent practices by media. Coming back to the issue of the Westgate minors: one needs only look at the American Pie movies series, which features various naked parties and naked marathons. The movie series develeoped a strong following, even in Zimbabwe.
Although sexually explicit media is intended and classified as adult entertainment in countries where sexually explicit media is allowed, it is very easy for minors to access sexually explicit media. Today, thanks to the internet, particularly social media, tech is as avenue for children to access pornographic material. The debate however begins on how national laws can protect minors from sexually explicit media.
Should individuals have the right to consume any kind of media they like, in particular, pornography?
The internet provides a platform for individuals to access sexually explicit material with ease. A simple search for the phrase ‘free internet porn’ on any search engine renders countless porn websites.
What’s to stops a child from access pornographic media on the internet? Although it is illegal to possess pornographic media in Zimbabwe, currently there are no laws to prevent minors from obtaining pornographic material on the internet. Our proposed ICT Policy might have something on this though.
Parents are also unable to supervise their children on the internet. Unfortunately, social media and IM platforms such as WhatsApp and various cloud services provide ways for both minors and adults to go around this, and share whatever sexually explicit material they have.
This brings up the issue of the Zimbabwean government policing the internet. Countries that are more conservative than Zimbabwe, such as U.A.E and China, have gone the extra mile and banned access to websites that provide sexually explicit material.
Maybe I’m just being a bit of a prude here, but shouldn’t the Zimbabwean government restrict access to pornographic websites? Banning porn websites would protect minors and reduce cases of illegal possession of pornographic material in Zimbabwe. It’s not as drastic as people think. We already frown upon it as society. I’m yet to be corrected here, but I’m sure all the religions and societies in Zimbabwe do not condone the consumption of sexually explicit material.
Besides the whole religious argument, research has shown that pornography is addictive. Allowing access of porn websites in Zimbabwe exposes minors to pornographic material, which isn;t just addicitive, but it’s what could inspire crazy ideas like naked parties. Proponents of pornography often argue that porn can be used to educate young adults about sex. However, porn is an imitation of the real thing and creates an addiction and emotional bond with an artificial world.
According to PornHub, South Africans spent 10 minutes 35 seconds per visit on the porn platform, more than the global average of eight minutes, 56 seconds. A survey of more than 4400 men in South Africa indicated that 67 % of men watch porn.
30 % of all the data transferred on the internet is porn. Porn sites get more visitors than Twitter, Netflix and Amazon combined. Porn might be the reason why your internet connection is slow.
If we put all of this in context, porn is a big problem. We need to do something drastic about it. Perhaps, with news of children caught doing the unthinkable, now is the time for society to act on it. If we can regulate something that has a bad impression on the youth and society, shouldn’t we have legislation that deals with this?
21 comments
Porn is already illegal in Zim, but is being sold in open by vendors on the streets. If the powers that be are failing / unwilling to stop the sale of porn DVDs on the streets , imagine how unable/unwilling they will be to restrict access to internet sites. The streets are easier to regulate and police than the internet.
legalize porn..
Legalizing porn will only compound the problem. Minors will be exposed to more porn. They might grow up aspiring to have porn careers .
How about trying some parenting?
Mom: So, what do you want to be when you grow up
Necessity: A pornstar!
Mom: Oh no! Damn you, legal porn! What am I to do?
There’s little difference between prostituting and porn (‘sex industry’) – where’s your precious consternation against prostitutes? Do some kids grow up aspiring to be prostitutes?
We should do away with porn………..for a million reasons…..
Name 1 that isn’t based on your personal belief system. And back it up with evidence.
Theres a ton of literature on the negative effects of porn, here’s a few:
http://tolovehonorandvacuum.com/2014/03/effects-of-porn-on-your-marriage/
http://familyshare.com/10-toxic-side-effects-of-pornography-use
http://www.howtobeast.com/porn-addiction-side-effects-and-how-to-quit-porn/
http://www.askmen.com/dating/news/side-effects-of-porn.html
There’s also a lot more literature (and scientific papers) on the negative effects of alcohol and tobacco, but that’s not reason enough to make them illegal, is it?
Alcohol and tobacco can cause life-ending physiological damage – not just social issues. They are legal, because the state assumes that you are a rational adult and you can weigh the risks for yourself.
Why the hell don’t the same standards apply to porn? I’ll tell you why – because of the cultural baggage we inherited from our Victorian colonisers.
its not only porn, have you seen the level nudity in music videos of today??
Thats true, hey! The poor kids are more likely influenced by videos of ‘twerking’ more than porn.
Can u stop people fm smoking? Can u stop people fm drinking? no… Best is to hve some control in your childs life and teach them the right fm the wrong. We are not living in the dark ages. Time some adults grew up as well. Banning is just another way silencing freedom of speech which we hve a right to do, even here!.
porn is here to stay look after your children people. As for adults watching porn well it is their business-they are adults even God gave you free will to do whatever you want.
Hosting a naked party has nothing to do with porn. I can asure you that if we backtrack to the time of Tshaka, to the Roman times, you’ll find that this happened. They would host their naked parties when bathing in the river or with their rich friends or with some prostitutes.
There’s nothing new here.
But in the Zimbabwean context your article should be that kids are getting more and organised and can coordinate such events thanks to the use of social media.
We all watch porn, we’re just too “righteous Zimbabweans” to say it in public.
maybe i’m just being open-minded but isn’t watching porn “a victim-less crime”? given how big an industry it is, maybe legalizing it, investing in it and then taxing it could actually help us with our economic woes…
the problem with “policing” this kinda stuff is that the ultimate decision makers when it comes to deciding what is blocked or not are People, not computers. people have agendas and in the end, they wont just block porn, they’ll also block anything that goes against what they want/believe in (snowball effect) …which is basically the argument we make for a free internet 🙂
The second statement conflicts with the first: if a minor obtains pornographic material from the internet, they come into possession of it – breaking the very law you mentioned. The answer is not “more laws”, its enforcing the current one.
I find Zimbabwe incredibly repressed – it’s difficult to reconcile the puritan attitudes towards sex/sexuality and being the #1 nation at condom usage. A couple of years back, we were toe-to-toe with Botswana on HIV-infection rates, despite our treating sex/sexuality as taboo.
Ask the average person if pornography should be legalized – they’ll tell you no. However, if you got throught the pics/vids on their phone, guess what you’d find? Porn.Hypocritical bloody prudes.
I personally believe porn should be legalized! Other than the fact it is almost impossible to control it, I sincerely believe it promotes heterosexual sex. You cannot have both ways i.e. ban homosexuality and on the other hand ban porn which (currently) promotes heterosexual sex. Zim needs heterosexual porn to offset a potential growth and ultimately acceptable homosexual activities.
Legalize it…don’t criticize it….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABc8ciT5QLs
This is ridiculous. This is a stupid law in the first place. Why should government control what we do in the privacy of our homes? Next they’ll be telling us what soap to use when we wash our balls. Surely our government and police has bigger fish to fry than going on witch hunts for people who watch porn. These are parenting issues and should be treated as such. I’m disappointed that this sort of article can even make it onto TechZim. It belongs in the opinion pages of The H-Metro.
Rubbish article. You should teach your kids vales and not seek to control both adults and kids at the same time. Rubbish article.
I’m sorry to say but this article is weak guys you can do better than this unless your aim is to troll people then you’ve done that.
“legislation that deals with this?” is not going to solve anything only create more problems in the future, next will be censorship and u won’t be able to access bbc or cnn because the news is harmful to the public or can’t google something like “analogue devices” because part of analogue can be associated with porn.
Your article should be about parental supervision and the dangers of technology, you should be talking to parents about how to protect and monitor there kids from the internet and how to minimize their exposure.
It’s the families fault for not paying attention while giving them a double edge sword(any internet accessible device), something is very wrong morally and intellectually with people if they think naked parties is a good/fun idea and in this case it starts in there homes and school.
Plus who drops off there kids without checking who is supervising the party and who to contact in case of an emergency. That’s the basics of any parenting.
those who are saying this article is rabbish have a self perceeption that they find it difficult to quity porn and thr only way is to support it so that they will have a positive self evaluation. porn is bad and the government have to something to ensure that there is no access to pornographic materials on the internet.