The ban covers the service known as 3G or third generation mobile phone services, which allows financial transactions and faster internet access, including downloading and sending of video content, through mobile phones. The signature campaign cited that video could be another means of distributing pornography in the country. Sen explained a few days after that it was not a ban, just a postponement of service. We can wait 10 more years until we have managed to improve morality in society, he said.
Cambodia has been fighting a pornographic content market that is tightly bound with incidences of child sex trafficking and sexual abuse for many years. A 2003 report by the group ****Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights states that pornography in the form of videos, magazines, and photographs are very easily accessible in Cambodia's major cities as well as in the areas popular to tourists such as Seam Reap and Phnom Penh. These pornographic materials cater to foreigners who come to Cambodia specifically to have sex with children as young as 8 years old. In August 2005, the Ministry of Women's Affairs launched a campaign against the sharing of pornographic photos by mobile phone when one popular actress complained that a nude photo on which her face had been added via digital manipulation started being circulated widely through mobile phones.
The move to ban the phones has also been criticised by the mobile phone industry in the country. The telecommunication operators look towards new services as an opening up of the telecommunication market, especially since 3G features and phone units are more expensive and induce consumers to spend more on phone services.
The decision also drew criticism from some technology analysts who proposed that Cambodia implement instead a content filtering system that would prevent 3G users from accessing pornographic websites. Such a system is already being used in Singapore. However, filtering is not a foolproof way, since it meant that the filters would have to keep track of all the websites posting pornographic contenta difficult task since many websites come online and go out of business frequently and are thus hard to track. Filtering is also a form censorship that could extend not just to pornographic cites, but for content that is critical of governments.
By May 31, the government through its spokesperson Khieu Kanharith retracted the ban by saying it would only prohibit live video streams among the rest of the 3G services.
Sources:
---. 2006. Cambodia formally bans 3G phones for fear of porn Retrieved on June 26, 2006 from from <http://english.people.com.cn/200605/30/eng20060530_269673.html>
---.2006. Cambodia bans 3G phones Retrieved on June 26, 2006 from <http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/3ggprs/0,39020339,39271951,00.htm >
---.2005. Mobile porn craze in Cambodia Retrived on June 26, 2006 from <http://www.smh.com.au/news/breaking/mobile-porn-craze-in-cambodia/2005/08/05/1123125885325.html#>
McClaren, Esther. 2006. 3G mobile ban astounds phone industry Retrieved on June 26, 2006 from <http://www.phnompenhpost.com/TXT/current/stories/1511/3g.htm>
Lim, Jeanne. 2006 Have 3G, will porn? Retrieved on June 26, 2006 from <http://www.zdnetasia.com/insight/communications/0,39044835,39367301,00.htm>
__. 2005. "A Preliminary Study into the Accessibility by Minors of Pornography in Cambodia
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