MALAYSIA — “Let’s talk about sex baby, let’s talk about you and me, let’s talk about all the good things and the bad things that may be, let’s talk about sex,” goes the lyrics to Salt-N-Pepa’s ‘Let’s talk about sex’ song, which had appealed to millions of listeners worldwide, becoming one of the biggest hits back in the 90s.
The topic of sex has always been regarded as taboo, especially within Asia; however, as much as we would deny it, the fact of the matter is, that sex sells, and people are drawn to discussing anything regarding sex.
A Malay daily recently shared a post on its Facebook page, citing a finding by a Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s (UKM) study that 75 per cent of Malaysian teenagers watch or look at pornographic materials.
The study titled “Youth Involvement in Pornographic Addiction Issues, Effect and Ways to Overcome Addiction” was conducted by students from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, UKM which has also been published online, aims to understand the implication of pornography addiction among youths and the importance of tackling it through the mobilisation of efforts from relevant parties.
The study which was published in 2021, found that boys made up the majority of teenagers who have viewed pornography since secondary school due to Internet availability while they were home alone
UKM Family Medicine Department head Associate Professor Noor Azimah Muhammad said a lack of monitoring by working parents contributed to this.
“There was an instance where one male student admitted having watched over 200 pornographic videos daily to satisfy his needs”
Noor Azimah said in another study conducted in 2013, 10 per cent of 988 university students surveyed were proven to have had sexual intercourse, with five per cent being sexually active.
She added that the same findings was reported in the 2017 National Health Morbidity Study, where 7.3 per cent of teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17 started having sexual intercourse as early as 14 years old, with five per cent being sexually active.
Noor Azimah urged parents to monitor their children to curb the problem.
The post with no background information had gone viral with over 4 thousand reactions and over 1.8 thousand comments left on the post.
In real life, Asian people especially, would never dare to utter the topic, but in this borderless universe called the Internet, it’s all fair game.
Garnering mixed reactions from netizens all over the country, many users made jokes and snide remarks on the post but there were also plenty of holier-than-thou individuals who took it as a very serious issue. Regardless of their moral standing, many took it upon themselves to respond to it.
Several users did not find the posting humorous and refusing to take it with a grain of salt, left solemn comments.
“Don’t you have anything better to study such as how to reduce education and living costs?” asked one user.
An angry user made it political by asking, “Where is the communication minister and why won’t he block this? If it’s to bark (provoke) then he is quick to act!”
Another user snidely said, “Let’s ask the communication minister to think of a solution rather than his non-stop cycling in the office and performing all sorts of dances. He should be monitoring this instead of continuously threatening us to watch out for a police patrol car that will arrive at our homes if we make political comments.”
In contrast, the users who found the post amusing had left hilarious, tongue in cheek comments.
“This includes the UKM students and academicians.” said a user rather flippantly.
Another user asked, “Only teenagers? Grandfathers too.”
One user brazenly states, “The study found that the other 25 percent watches monkeys politicking.”
