Telecom porn ads enrage activists

Anti-smut activists are outraged that brochures advertising erotic films through Hongkong Telecom's Interactive TV (iTV) video-on-demand service were attached to children's cartoon highlights.

The brochures, including information on supermarket items, cartoon programmes, racing news, mainstream films and pornographic adult specials, were placed into a single envelope with no warning on it.

Explicit scenes of gay and lesbian sex, sado-masochistic sessions and pornographic heterosexual scenes were shown in the adverts for the 'adult specials' brochure.

Chairman of the Committee on Home-School Co-operation, Tik Chi-yuen, said brochures with indecent adverts should be placed in an opaque plastic bag with a warning covering at least one-fifth of it as the law requires.

'Obviously, it's against the law. I was totally disappointed that Hongkong Telecom, such a big company, had ignored this move that could be harmful to children and teenagers,' Mr Tik said.

'It will ruin their [Telecom's] image, especially when they are promoting new media. I hope the Government will do something to stop them,' he added.

Ousted legislator and Democratic Party information service policy spokesman Andrew Cheng Kar-foo said such an advertising ploy might be good for profit but was damaging to Telecom's reputation.