LONDON,
September 8 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Two-thirds of French
people want pornography banned from television, according to a poll
conducted by the country's audiovisual watchdog, the CSA, BBC’s online
service reported Sunday, September 8.
Out
of the 1,000 people interviewed, 64% said they would approve a ban.
The
percentage was higher among women, but pollsters found no major
differences across political lines.
The
survey, published in the daily Le Parisien, comes as
politicians move to review the laws governing X-rated material on both
cable and non-cable channels.
Many
French legislators blame hardcore porn for a recent spate of sex
attacks by schoolchildren on other schoolchildren, BBC said.
"It
would be simple to apply existing laws [to enforce a ban] and that
would let us avoid having youths find images on their screens that are
upsetting and poisonous at an age when they are developing their
sexual identities," the French Minister for Family Affairs,
Christian Jacob, told Le Parisien.
According
to Jacob, 950 violent or pornographic films are screened every month
on television in France, BBC said.
Several
cable channels plan to show more in the future, CSA says.
In
July, the CSA recommended banning porn even from encrypted cable
stations. It argued that many under-18s had access to X-rated films
despite encryption.
Critics,
however, say that banning porn from TV will make the situation worse.
"The
quality of the films will decrease, there will be more and more cheap
and dirty videos," hardcore pornographer John B Root has said.
"It's
absolutely stupid because there will be as many consumers for porn
movies as there are now, but the porn films will be cheaper, it will
be a disaster for everybody and a cultural disaster."