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Addiction to pornography is on the rise in the country. Thanks to easy internet access through smart phone, porn sites are now probably the most watched sites by different age groups, especially men. It is a fact that men have always some eager interest in sexual literature, images and videos. Due to social a taboo and limited access, such materials once had limited readership and viewership. People had to maintain some restraint in this regard. Even a decade ago, all such stuffs were not very readily available.
But smart phone revolution coupled with 3G mobile phone service play a vital role to open the floodgate of pornographic contents almost anywhere anytime. A quick analysis of Google trend on porn or sex-related items substantiates the proposition. Access to speedy internet definitely makes life easier on many counts. At the same time, using the facility to search and watch pornographic items has some negative implications on society.
The severity of porn addiction in the country is also reflected when compared with other countries in South Asia. The Bangladeshis are the most avid porn followers followed by the Nepalese, the Indians, the Pakistanis and the Lankans. Google trend for the last decade shows that Bangladesh has the most searches with a search interest of 100, whereas the number for Nepalese is 94 and for India it is 72. In Google trend, search interest is measured on a scale of 0 to 100. 100 indicate the highest number of searches in a country (after adjusting for search volumes).
Search follows watch and Indians are third in this respect, preceded by American and British people. Though Bangladeshis are not in the list of top 10 or 20, it doesn't mean that they are poor watchers as non-online consumptions are not taken into consideration.
The Bangladeshis are also ahead of India and Pakistanis on looking for gay porn, as unveiled by an analysis of Google trend. By using Datawrapper, Indian leading daily Mint showed that search interest in homosexuality is increasing in South Asia. For Bangladesh, the search interest number is 41, followed by Pakistan (36) and India (30).
The statistics are enough to expose the increasing interest and addiction to online pornographic items in the country. A survey by a leading Non-Government Organisation (NGO) last year also showed that around 75 per cent of school going children were addicted to pornography.
Alarmed by the rise of porn addiction, a few human rights activists last year also moved to the High Court seeking remedial measures. Following the petition, the High Court on November last year ordered to block all the pornography websites accessible from Bangladesh for six months. It is still not clear whether the authorities concerned fully comply with the directive given by the top court. Quick check of Google trend, however, indicates that search interest number on porn items is more or less similar before and after the order.
There is no doubt that the porn addiction plays a big role in spurring eve teasing, sexual harassment and sexual violence. Day by day more women of different ages are facing physical abuses and psychological attacks in educational institutions, offices, on streets, at shopping malls, in public transports and other public places. Wider space to encourage creativity is a must for containing the disturbing addiction.