Keeping on-line sex in line
NEWS reports from Britain claim that women involved in the ''telephone sex'' business are rushing to order ''new videophones, so punters can watch them perform disgusting live sex shows''.
Anyone who can afford to pay the price (HK$6,000) ''will be able to dial the sex lines which will put them face to face with a hooker,'' according to newspaper reports.
Which makes us wonder just how long it will take for the debate to heat up in Hongkong - given that Hongkong Telecom will start selling videophones here later this month.
Videophones pose some interesting regulatory questions, not the least of which would be which department will look into the videophone-sex issue.
Precisely how they will be policed is unclear.
What is certain is that policing the videophones, should any authority feel particularly bothered, will be extremely difficult.
The Telecommunications Authority certainly doesn't want to do it. ''I don't think that we're in charge of the morality of the public,'' a spokesman said yesterday.
It's doubtful that the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority is going to be too keen.
The services may be accessible, but you could not say they were being ''broadcast''.
And I'm sure Hongkong Telecom would probably prefer to pull their own teeth than be lumbered with some kind of ad hoc watchdog role, although they would probably pass on complaints.
It is all very tedious. My suggestion would be for Government to pretend this nonsense does not exist.
Overly anxious parents should keep the videophone under lock and key.
The machines being sold in the UK are developed by GEC-Marconi - the same standard as those being sold in Hongkong (MCI in the US will also sell them, incidentally).
So punters can get their jollies anyway by simply dialling IDD. (That's the part Hongkong Telecom would love.) IBM has had more than its fair share of bad press lately, having been through the most difficult period in its corporate history. Competitors, of course, would argue that IBM deserve anything they get - they have earned it.
With axes being wielded throughout its worldwide organisation in an effort to reduce head-count and costs (to stem the tide of red ink), IBM's clippings file is beginning to look like a never-ending tale of woe.
In the US at least, the company is taking out advertisements to try to communicate with its customers directly.
The company wants to assure customers and stockholders that cost-cutting measures mean that it has become a lean and responsive giant - not the great lumbering dolt as has been portrayed in the press.
Reports said the company had taken out double-page advertisements in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times to be printed later this week.
Meanwhile, in Hongkong, IBM has announced the formation of a local office of the newly-established IBM Consulting Group.
IBM said market research has concluded that consulting is the fastest growing category of the IT-related service category, with annual growth estimated at 14 to 18 per cent between now and 1996.
In terms of revenue, it is estimated the growth will be from US$11 billion in 1991 to between $22 billion and $26 billion in 1996.
The company's director of consulting service for IBM China/Hongkong, Mr John Boyle, said the group had completed more than 12 engagements in banking, finance, government and utilities, even before its formal establishment.
Maybe they should take out an advertisement.
