[Opinion] Korean Porno Websites

`Love and secret of an actress` or `Wow, there are too many to see` are among the titles of messages you find in your Internet mailboxes. And you know what they are like without reading those messages. But when you see titles such as `Your request has been processed` or `How are you doing?,` you feel tempted to check, and chances are they are all linked to porno Websites. When classifying such harmful adult sites worldwide by language, it turned out that Korean Websites ranked second following English ones. This silver medal is a disgrace, not an honor.

Information communication experts cite this country`s world-leading Internet infrastructure as the secret of success. It ranks No. 1 in both penetration of high-speed Internet and the number of broadband users. Crowded city areas, especially apartment complexes, have contributed significantly to the fast adoption of the high-speed Internet. British daily the Guardian explains that the `red cars` are traveling fast on the well-paved road because it is a lucrative business. Dario Betty, an e-commerce analyst, points to that porno sites are the most successful business area over the Internet. Through the history, obscene materials-filled software programs were among the first to occupy space of advanced technology. Web design firms inspect porno sites as a means of testing skills. It is because those sites are the ones that take advantage of cutting-edge technologies ahead of others. It is sorry that people fail to use the convenient means of technology for more productive things.

We still cannot but wonder, however. The Japanese were once called `sex animals` in Southeast Asia, but Japanese porno Websites amount to only a fourth of Korean counterparts. Then this means Koreans are more interested in sex capabilities and other things about sex? It is hard to track down exact volumes of sales, but Korea is one of the key markets for Viagra. Unlike other countries that allows the separate existence of the `red zone,` this country, punishing those involved in adultery, bans any of such existence and condones those accessing the red zone secretly, a double standard that could fuel emergence of porno sites.

They say that people enjoy porno Websites due to three As, which are accessibility, anonymity and affordability. Of the world`s 2000 million population, some 20 to 30% are believed to visit adult sites. Five out of ten grown-ups in this country have visited porno sites before and one even does that at workplaces, according to a survey. Addiction to porno sites is now becoming a social issue, but what bothers us is not the `porno` part but `addiction` part. It is relieving that the Ministry of Information and Communication has decided to block Korean porno Web sites linked to servers in foreign countries. We doubt, however, whether humans ever can stop the high-speed travel of technology and money.

Kim Sun-deok, Editorial Writer, yuri@donga.com