Top TV yesterday argued that the risk of a child being exposed to the three new adult content channels it hopes to launch was "far less" than the risk posed by internet porn.
Representatives of the broadcaster yesterday appeared before an Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) panel to argue why the three channels should be authorised.
The points Top TV made include:
- The adult content would only be broadcast between 8pm and 5am;
- In a survey by Top TV, 71% of 501 respondents agreed that "an adult has a right to watch pornography in the privacy of his/her home".
Slightly more than half of the respondents said they were likely to or highly likely to subscribe to a porn channel.
- The Top TV porn programming would not constitute hate speech or incite violence; and
- Pornography was readily available on the internet but the broadcaster's pin-code safeguard would provide greater parental control over access to content.
The African Christian Democratic Party said that authorising the channels could result in other broadcasters seeing porn as a "quick fix" to "jump start" their business.
Jacques Rousseau, chairman of the Free Society Institute, arguing in support of the Top TV application, said: "Pornography seems to do two things: increase arousal and religious outrage."
He said that though pornography could sometimes be demeaning, denying people choice was always demeaning.
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