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LEGISLATORS are calling for tighter controls on violent and pornographic computer game software, amid signs that the latest hard-core sex technology is hitting the territory.

 Industry experts say self-regulation may be necessary to alleviate public concern on the rising tide of computer sex.

 Following a recent raid by the Customs and Excise Department in a Shamshuipo shopping centre, in which 18 pornographic CD-ROM disks were seized for the first time, the Sunday Morning Post yesterday found the sex games were still easily available on the market.

 The CD-ROM disks, which can store 300 times more data than a standard computer disk, are a sophisticated cross-breed of category III films and a video game.

 Players can choose what they want to do with their ''hot dates'', and the animated pictures are often as realistic as video clips.

 One version obtained yesterday in the same shopping centre, titled Heavenly Bodies Volume Two, contains more than 200 pictures of nude girls and was freely displayed at the shop priced at $520.

  At least two shops offer these CD-ROMs and nearly all retailers sell pornographic software, with most of them labelled ''adult only'' or ''category III''.

  Mr Michael Morrow, managing director of Asia-CD Ltd., said CD-ROM had been used as a medium for pornography because of its enhanced storage capacity.

  ''It is very easy to put pictures on to CD-ROM. It is easy and cheap. You can get a collection of dirty pictures on to the CD-ROM and make products on that,'' he said.

  ''What we are seeing in Shamshuipo is just a natural phenomenon of the growing interactive multi-media,'' he said.

  Mr Morrow said a major portion of a CD-ROM conference held recently in the United States was devoted to adult entertainment and it has generally become accepted.

  Cheung Man-kwong, teacher's representative in the Legislative Council, said pornographic CD-ROMs were more harmful than pornographic videos as they offered an element of control over the sequence of events unavailable with videos.

  He urged the Government to review existing legislation as CD-ROM was not covered under the movie categorisation scheme.

  United Democrats legislator the Reverend Fung Chi-wood said the Government had failed to catch up with emerging technology.

  He said he favoured a rating scheme for computer game software similar to the one in Singapore. ''It would make it easier for parents to pick games for their kids,'' he said. ''Those materials deemed unsuitable for youngsters should be restricted and enforcement should be strengthened.''   Mr Morrow agreed a rating system would help parents to better evaluate whether the content of a game was suitable for their children.

 ''If the public feels somewhat outraged by pornographic CD-ROM and it begins to become a significant issue, those people who are involved in the publication and distribution of CD-ROM products can make some standards and make those standards available to the public,'' he said.

  ''I am not against the rating system if it is developed by the business itself.''    All publications fall under the Control of the Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance and the Obscene Articles Tribunal is responsible for enforcement.

 But a Government spokesman said nothing could be done unless the materials were brought to its attention either by the publishers or the police.

   In 1991 three people were prosecuted and each fined $3,000 under the ordinance for selling pornographic computer games.



Bid to curb computer porn games