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SCMP Reporter

OUTLAWED pornographic CD-ROMs are being openly sold to youngsters in Shamshuipo shops, the Sunday Morning Post has discovered.

  The discs which produce moving images of video tape quality for computers have been given the spurious label 'category IV' by dealers to emphasise their explicit nature.

  Despite the ban on their sale, the Sunday Morning Post discovered that shopkeepers were more than happy to sell them to an undercover investigator aged 17.

  Shamshuipo is home to a maze of shopping complexes specialising in high-tech products, from innocent computer games to pornography.

  The Sunday Morning Post randomly selected five CD shops and sent the young investigator to try to buy illegal products. Two of them offered the items for sale without any query.

  'Hey, do you want category IV CD-ROMs?' a shopkeeper asked, when our investigator went window-shopping in the New Capital Computer Plaza in the district.

  The shop displayed legal CD-ROMs in the window but when our investigator went inside he was shown a catalogue containing pictures of CD-ROMs for sale which featured naked women in provocative poses.

  The shopkeeper, who gave his name only as Ah Shing, continued: 'These are the category IV CD-ROMs. All of them are original copies from overseas, from places such as America, Japan and Taiwan.'   According to Ah Shing, a category IV CD-ROM meant it showed both males and females on the screen completely naked. Category III CD-ROMs, which are also illegal, showed just upper torsos naked.

  The CD-ROMs, which are normally sold for $450 each, have no warning about their contents on the cover.

  In one of them, titled Seymour Butts, the player is given the identity of a young male. He is seen strolling down the road where he meets an attractive woman. The film stops and the player is given a number of options to choose from on what he should do next. The consequences are different but all of them finally end up with the player engaging in explicit sex with one or more women.

  In another shop in the same plaza, a shopkeeper also offered copies of category IV CD-ROMs at $250 each.

  CD-ROMs come under the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance. People who violate the ordinance face a maximum penalty of a $1 million fine and three years' jail.

  Anti-pornography activist Daniel Wong Kwok-tong condemned those who made money out of the industry for influencing youngsters in their formative years.

  'Pornography has swept through the territory in recent years and, worst of all, businessmen are targeting teenagers to broaden their businesses. Comics, films, posters, electronic games, and now the CD-ROMs. The fact that computer use is so widespread among families means children will be at risk,' he said.



Pornographic CD-ROMs easy buys for youngsters