Sir, - Mairead Ryan (February 3rd) raises a critical issue: that of the imposition of pornographic values on an unprepared community. The recent introduction of pornographic titles to newsagents has resulted in pornography becoming a part of the everyday urban environment.
This subtle social change implies that there is a popular demand for - and acceptance of - such material. The casual appropriation of the term "adult" could even be seen to imply a tacit interest in it on the part of all over-18s - a far greater level of apparent complicity than many adults might like.
If, as a society, we have decided to allow pornography to be available for those who wish to buy it, we have a responsibility to monitor its effects on our society and regulate the market in which it is sold.
To date, the free market has determined the pace of developments in the trade in sexually exploitative imagery. The longer the trade continues without regulation, the more entrenched and anti-regulation the traders become. Magazine importers, distributors and newsagents are already accustomed to the free trade environment and are enjoying the resultant profits.
Urgent and imaginative measures are required if our expressed principles of social equality are not to fall foul of a fake liberal argument which favours profits over human rights. I propose the following steps to regulate and make accountable the traders in pornography:
1. Have publishers and importers classify their own produce according to content.
2. License importers, distributors and retailers of pornography.
3. Apply the same guidelines which exist for advertising to magazine covers
4. Use VAT revenues earned from pornography to fund health and welfare initiatives for sex workers.
Public policy must catch up with the reality of the current trade. It is not good enough to plead freedom of expression; we all, adults and children, have the right to live a life free from demeaning and oppressive pornographic images. The presence of pornography in our newsagents is a violation of this right. - Yours, etc.,
Adam May, Great Strand Street, Dublin 1.