The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Clean chit for media

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 01, 2005

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Clean chit for media

Is the Internet responsible for the sex scandals which have rocked the State in the recent past? Or is it TV channels, films and CD cassettes which have fuelled the trend? Public debate on the issue has often blamed one or either of the media for the spurt in the number of sexual harassment cases.

But at least one organisation is prepared to give a clean chit to all these media. The Free Computer Education Society believes that the trend has more to do with social and economic factors than the influence of the Internet, cinema or TV.

To bolster its argument, the society recently issued a statement pointing out that hardly three per cent of the population in Kerala had access to the Internet, mainly because of the cost factor. However, 90 per cent of the people are television viewers, with 60 per cent watching channels. Moreover, the youth had easy access to pornographic literature and CD cassettes.

The society observes that notorious sex scandals had occurred in Kerala even before the advent of these media. It claims that students mostly use the Internet for project works or to send e- mail messages. "The allegation that Internet and TV channels have a direct bearing on sex scandals is baseless," it concludes.

T. Nandakumar

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