New Zealand's Chief Censor Bill Hastings says he's worried about the effects of freely-available condomless gay pornography, and invites feedback on the issue. "Depictions of explicit sexual behaviour influence us to a greater or lesser extent, and in a variety of ways. The emergence of "bareback porn" is, therefore, particularly worrying," says Hastings. The Chief Censor says his Classification Office rarely receives DVD's depicting unprotected anal intercourse, which he suspects is because gay men are more likely to order explicit DVDs online. "I would wager that most explicit gay “bareback” sex DVDs sidestep the classification and labelling laws, and the Classification Office, because they are ordered from overseas distributors by individuals in New Zealand for their own personal use," explains Hastings. "I am concerned about the influence that explicit gay "bareback" sex DVDs have on viewers, and about the consequential threat they pose to public health and the public good if the practices they depict become normalised through repeated viewing," the Chief Censor concludes. Hastings invites opinions about the influence that explicit condomless sex DVDs, gay and straight, have on viewers and society, about what they think the Classification Office should do about them within existing law, and on whether and how they think the law should be changed. GayNZ.com's full interview feature with Bill Hastings is linked below. To contact the Chief Censor with feedback: Bill Hastings Chief Censor, Office of Film and Literature Classification PO Box 1999, Wellington, New Zealand E-Mail: bill@censorship.govt.nz Ref: GayNZ.com (m)
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Thursday, 6th September 2007 - 11:59am