gonzo
08-01-2006, 04:08 AM
Vietnam is definitely up there on the list of countries that has pretty strict regulations concerning online content. Years back, they started down this path by requiring websites to register (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20021014/1526250.shtml) with the government -- which just so happened to allow them to stop some online critics (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20021023/0144218.shtml) from speaking out. While they've struggled (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20030203/108226.shtml) at times to manage the growth of the internet while still blocking any content they find objectionable, they've delegated some of the work to local governments (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20040608/1520216.shtml) and asked citizens to report any bad info they see online (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20040610/1034233.shtml) (an early example of crowdsourcing (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20060525/1141207.shtml), perhaps?). Of course, while most of the focus has been on stopping any sort of political dissent, porn is another important issue. The Vietnamese government, not surprisingly, bans porn websites.
However, it seems that may have resulted in a bit of a problem. Married couples aren't having enough sex -- often leading to divorce and/or increased prostitution. At least, that's what the government claims. To fix this problem, the Vietnamese government has decided there's only one thing it can do: produce its own government-approved porn (http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyid=2006-07-20T024452Z_01_HAN135202_RTRIDST_0_OUKIN-UK-LIFE-VIETNAM-SEX.XML&src=rss) -- and hope that it puts married couples back into the mood. Of course, they don't call it "porn." No, it's an "orthodox sex website" that will "help couples learn more about healthy sexual intercourse." The government insists that the videos on the site will only be "educational" in nature, which doesn't necessarily mean very much. It is, of course, quite likely that these videos will be incredibly tame, if they're even remotely sexual at all. The videos may end up being typical sex ed videos -- though it's difficult to see how that will encourage the married couple who hasn't had sex in a year (which the gov't official cited as being a big problem) to get it on. You have to imagine that such a couple has other issues to work out than how to make sure their intercourse is "healthy."
However, it seems that may have resulted in a bit of a problem. Married couples aren't having enough sex -- often leading to divorce and/or increased prostitution. At least, that's what the government claims. To fix this problem, the Vietnamese government has decided there's only one thing it can do: produce its own government-approved porn (http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyid=2006-07-20T024452Z_01_HAN135202_RTRIDST_0_OUKIN-UK-LIFE-VIETNAM-SEX.XML&src=rss) -- and hope that it puts married couples back into the mood. Of course, they don't call it "porn." No, it's an "orthodox sex website" that will "help couples learn more about healthy sexual intercourse." The government insists that the videos on the site will only be "educational" in nature, which doesn't necessarily mean very much. It is, of course, quite likely that these videos will be incredibly tame, if they're even remotely sexual at all. The videos may end up being typical sex ed videos -- though it's difficult to see how that will encourage the married couple who hasn't had sex in a year (which the gov't official cited as being a big problem) to get it on. You have to imagine that such a couple has other issues to work out than how to make sure their intercourse is "healthy."