Lady writes ST forum letter enlisting help of govt & S’poreans to ban porn
The recent Monica Baey incident brought up a lot of meaningful dialogue.
This include, how seriously do we treat these types of incidents, what more can we do to ensure a safer environment for students, and how do we go about bringing forth those changes.
Most Singaporeans, for the most part, appeared to understand that attitudes had to change for the system to change, and no one change can serve as a magic bullet to make everything better.
Others blamed porn.
On May 20, 2019, Roslyn Snodgrass Seah wrote a forum letter to The Straits Times, somehow connecting the Monica Baey incident, the rise in molestation cases, and Peeping Tom cases in hall to an increased access in pornography:
Seah does not provide any links to the local experts, but there have been literature that dispels the notion that pornography and sexual assault have a direct link.
All this was proof enough for her to give these recommendations, before Singaporeans found themselves on the slipperiest of slopes:
https://mothership.sg/2019/05/forum-letter-st-mothership/
Block all porn websites
Roslyn Snodgrass Seah
A posed photo of a person typing on a computer keyboard.PHOTO: THE NEW PAPER
Published
May 20, 2019, 6:28 pm SGT
The adverse publicity in the case of university undergraduate Monica Baey, the victim in a Peeping Tom case, appears not to have deterred four other university students from outraging the modesty of women despite the potential punishment, the risk to their reputation and their future prospects (Suspected voyeur caught in NUS dorm, May 13).
Last August, The Straits Times released statistics given by the Singapore Police Force highlighting the sharp rise in the number of molestation cases, largely in entertainment nightspots and on public transport (Molestation and scam incidents on the rise, Aug 24, 2018).
These number of molestation reports rose by 21.5 per cent in the first half of last year.
The sharp spike is most likely due to easy access to pornography via the Internet, now also available on the ubiquitous smartphone.
Touch Cyber Wellness, the main agency that gives online safety talks in schools here, revealed in a survey in 2016 that 9 in 10 teenage boys in Singapore had watched or read sexually explicit materials within the previous year.
Local experts say that this could lead to sexual crimes because those who start with online behaviour quickly start to act out in new ways offline.
Thus, a pornography watcher may commit sexual crimes against women when the opportunity arises, including filming women showering.
These statistics show where all this is headed.
The answer does not lie in punishing individual offenders but, rather, by interrupting the trajectory of such anti-social behaviour.
We need an aggressive multi-pronged approach to handle the root cause.
All pornographic websites should be banned by the Infocomm Media Development Authority, children and parents should be educated on the dangers of watching pornography, and filters should be made to prevent pornographic material from seeping into smartphones or Internet television.
Some citizens have developed software applications to circumvent Web-blocking.
It is time to harness the expertise of the many law-abiding Internet-savvy citizens to counter this and, together with the Government, block all pornographic websites.
Roslyn Snodgrass Seah
https://www.straitstimes.com/forum/letters-on-the-web/block-all-porn-websites
The recent Monica Baey incident brought up a lot of meaningful dialogue.
This include, how seriously do we treat these types of incidents, what more can we do to ensure a safer environment for students, and how do we go about bringing forth those changes.
Most Singaporeans, for the most part, appeared to understand that attitudes had to change for the system to change, and no one change can serve as a magic bullet to make everything better.
Others blamed porn.
On May 20, 2019, Roslyn Snodgrass Seah wrote a forum letter to The Straits Times, somehow connecting the Monica Baey incident, the rise in molestation cases, and Peeping Tom cases in hall to an increased access in pornography:
“The sharp spike is most likely due to easy access to pornography via the Internet, now also available on the ubiquitous smartphone.”
She then cited local experts who appear to see a high correlation in watching pornagraphy and sexual assaults or misdemeanours:“Local experts say that this could lead to sexual crimes because those who start with online behaviour quickly start to act out in new ways offline.”
Seah does not provide any links to the local experts, but there have been literature that dispels the notion that pornography and sexual assault have a direct link.
All this was proof enough for her to give these recommendations, before Singaporeans found themselves on the slipperiest of slopes:
“All pornographic websites should be banned by the Infocomm Media Development Authority, children and parents should be educated on the dangers of watching pornography, and filters should be made to prevent pornographic material from seeping into smartphones or Internet television.
Some citizens have developed software applications to circumvent Web-blocking.
It is time to harness the expertise of the many law-abiding Internet-savvy citizens to counter this and, together with the Government, block all pornographic websites.”
You can read the full letter here.https://mothership.sg/2019/05/forum-letter-st-mothership/
Block all porn websites
Roslyn Snodgrass Seah
A posed photo of a person typing on a computer keyboard.PHOTO: THE NEW PAPER
Published
May 20, 2019, 6:28 pm SGT
The adverse publicity in the case of university undergraduate Monica Baey, the victim in a Peeping Tom case, appears not to have deterred four other university students from outraging the modesty of women despite the potential punishment, the risk to their reputation and their future prospects (Suspected voyeur caught in NUS dorm, May 13).
Last August, The Straits Times released statistics given by the Singapore Police Force highlighting the sharp rise in the number of molestation cases, largely in entertainment nightspots and on public transport (Molestation and scam incidents on the rise, Aug 24, 2018).
These number of molestation reports rose by 21.5 per cent in the first half of last year.
The sharp spike is most likely due to easy access to pornography via the Internet, now also available on the ubiquitous smartphone.
Touch Cyber Wellness, the main agency that gives online safety talks in schools here, revealed in a survey in 2016 that 9 in 10 teenage boys in Singapore had watched or read sexually explicit materials within the previous year.
Local experts say that this could lead to sexual crimes because those who start with online behaviour quickly start to act out in new ways offline.
Thus, a pornography watcher may commit sexual crimes against women when the opportunity arises, including filming women showering.
These statistics show where all this is headed.
The answer does not lie in punishing individual offenders but, rather, by interrupting the trajectory of such anti-social behaviour.
We need an aggressive multi-pronged approach to handle the root cause.
All pornographic websites should be banned by the Infocomm Media Development Authority, children and parents should be educated on the dangers of watching pornography, and filters should be made to prevent pornographic material from seeping into smartphones or Internet television.
Some citizens have developed software applications to circumvent Web-blocking.
It is time to harness the expertise of the many law-abiding Internet-savvy citizens to counter this and, together with the Government, block all pornographic websites.
Roslyn Snodgrass Seah
https://www.straitstimes.com/forum/letters-on-the-web/block-all-porn-websites
