PHNOM PENH -- A teenage craze for sending doctored naked images of female celebrities to each other by mobile phones sparked a demand on Thursday by a Cambodian minister for government action against pornography. The local press in the mainly Buddhist nation has been in a frenzy in recent weeks over the sudden spread of pornographic images by phone after the mother of a pop singer spotted a photograph of her daughter sent to a phone.
While the government is powerless to monitor what images people are sending to each other by phone, minister of women's affairs Ung Kantha Phavy told a press briefing that it should shut down indecent Websites.
We "ask the government to block Internet ISPs which are used to transfer pornographic images, show sex sites and chat sites", she said, speaking after talks with legislators and nongovernment organizations on pornography. She said that each government ministry should also educate its own officials about the inappropriateness of sending images.
Fuel was added to the media fire late last month when a man was arrested for allegedly forcing a woman to take off her clothes while being filmed in return for not being sexually assaulted. The four-minute movie was quickly distributed around the capital via mobile phones.
"The increase in the distribution of the pornographic pictures to youth has severely affected the value, honor and dignity of Cambodian women and family, social, cultural and Khmer traditional values," the women's affairs ministry said in a separate statement.
In a letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen, Ung Kantha Phavy described the phenomenon as "a state of emergency because if there are no measures to crack down quickly, more women will become victims". The minister also urged the government to close shops that play pornographic videos and ban the importation of inappropriate DVDs and CDs.
In February Hun Sen ordered that pornographic magazines be removed from newsstands, arguing that they posed a danger to society.
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