At one level, communications minister Sushma Swaraj's decision to block all calls from India to sexually explicit chat lines is unexceptionable. These phone services are the audio equivalent of hard pornography, which by its very definition is illegal.Aside from injuring sensibilities, such international call facilities have injured bank balances. Many unsuspecting people - largely parents of adolescents - have found themselves slapped with huge ISD bills. In fact, among the victims are some government departments whose employees have misused official telephones. In a cash-strapped age, permissiveness seems to be inversely proportionate to phone call charges. Nevertheless, beyond the sniggers and the satisfaction of checking the "cultural invasion", there is a larger crisis which confronts Indian society: how does it reconcile morality with technology?By putting an end to the objectionable phone facilities, Swaraj may be missing the wood for the trees. It could be argued that clients of the phone-sex services will simply shift patronage to similar sites on the Internet. Satellite and cable television pose their own challenges. Should the Government aim to curb prurience on every front, it may find such moral policing prohibitive in terms of costs and impossible in terms of absolute enforcement. .preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}Ultimately, it boils down to mindsets - not methods. The information revolution and ever-evolving communication technology have eroded the authority of the state. No longer can the Government play gatekeeper, allowing in some ideas and barring those deemed harmful. More than ever before, today's citizen is an autonomous being. In this situation, to continue to harp on the protective paternalism of the state is to bay at the moon. A more effective alternative suggests itself self-regulation by the individual.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Aug 31, 1998--- ENDS ---
