Religious groups in Grahamstown fear that a pornography channel on DSTV will undermine moral values. Multichoice, which owns DSTV, recently said that it is considering adult content after having been inundated with requests over the last few months.
Religious groups in Grahamstown fear that a pornography channel on DSTV will undermine moral values. Multichoice, which owns DSTV, recently said that it is considering adult content after having been inundated with requests over the last few months.
“We are horrified at the prospect of a 24 hour TV channel showing pornography,” said Gayle Hagenann of Grahamstown Christian Centre this week. But she did concede that it is part of today’s world. “We as Christians would never watch such things,” she said. “But in the end, people will have to decide for themselves.”
Rev Neville Williams of Emmanuel Assembly agreed that pornography is totally immoral. “I feel our country’s humanity is slipping away,” he said. Pornographic content has become widely available on both television and cellphones. “I see the effect it is having on our children,” he said. “Sadly, there is very little we can do about it.”
Mohammed Moorad, the secretary of the Grahamstown Muslim Association also believes that pornography is a danger to leading a healthy and balanced life. “It demoralises society and primes the seeds of perverted minds,” he said. “Family value systems are interfered with and the building blocks of love and trust can be broken.”
Pornography also leads to the abuse of women and children, Moorad said. In online chat forums, on the other hand, many positive reactions to the Mulichoice announcement can be found. “Behind closed doors all those who oppose this watch it,” a woman commented on IOL Online. “I am a mom of three, married and very happy watching porn with my husband!”
Meanwhile, the Solidarity Helping Hand Fund has launched an anti-pornography campaign, calling on people to “make their voices heard in saying no to pornography on DSTV. Pornography is at odds with our Bill of Rights,” says the fund on its website www.helpinghandfund.co.za. Around 13000 South Africans have already voted in favour of the campaign which can even be done via SMS- with supporters including public figures such as Victor Matfield.
“According to experts, all child molesters watch pornography,” said Dr Danie Langner, executive director of Helping Hand Fund. “Of course, not all those who watch pornography are molesters.
But perversion is aroused by pornography.” Research has shown that in 90% of cases, victims of sexual abuse know the perpetrators, Langner said.
So he says if family members or acquaintances of children are watching pornography, child abuse will increase dramatically.
“The implementation of sex channels on DSTV can be regarded as a form of child molestation and a violation of children’s rights,” he said.
Prof Jane Duncan, Chair of Media and Information Studies at Rhodes University, disagrees. “While child abusers may well rely on pornography to stimulate their sexual appetites, many people who use pornography are not child abusers, which implies that child abusers have a predisposition to abuse that is not linked to pornography.”
She feels that there is a danger of making unsubstantiated causal links between the availability of porn and child abuse as it gives the state the arguments it needs to control more and more of what we may see, read or hear.
“Our democracy moves into dangerous territory when we do that, because as has been seen with the recent amendment to the Film and Publications Act state control of our freedom of speech will inevitably not stop at pornography.” She added: “Many may not like the fact that adults choose to use pornography, but it is their hard won right to access both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ speech.”
Marlon Abrahams, writing in his article “Is Porn a Threat to Kids?” on the website parent24.com feels that it is the parents’ responsibility to protect their children if they choose to subscribe to the proposed porn channel.
“Any responsible parent would go to great lengths to protect their kids from inappropriate viewing, such as violence and explicit sex.
Bottom line is, if you want a porn channel in your home and you have kids, take responsibility for your actions.
“Make sure it’s a win-win situation for you and the kids: you get to enjoy some voyeuristic fun with the missus and the kids never ever, ever, ever find out. It can be done!” He added further: “As for the screaming (pardon the pun) masses out there clamouring for the channel not to see the light of day just don’t subscribe.
We have to maintain the right of choice in our society, and to allow the fear of child abuse to deny responsible parents perfectly acceptable choices, is not an option in my book.”
