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Legalise sex toys and pornography to cut rape, says Thai MP
- About 30,000 rape cases are reported in Thailand every year, according to Pheu Thai Plus think tank’s secretary
- Prison terms aren’t working, he says, but giving a release to sexual urges might. However, a women’s group has dismissed his call as ‘irrelevant’
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A Thai MP has proposed legalising sex toys and pornography as a way to cut rape offences and other sexual assaults.
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Treerat Sirichantaropas, a spokesman for a committee tasked with combating rape, said in a Facebook post on Monday he believed legalising pornography and sex toys would help to cut the number of sexual assault cases reported in the country.
Treerat, who is also secretary of the Pheu Thai Plus think tank, said about 30,000 rape cases were reported every year, the majority of them filed by victims aged between 15 and 19 years.
Pornography and sex toys are taboo in Thailand’s conservative and hierarchical society, and dissemination of pornographic materials over the internet is a criminal offence punishable with jail terms of up to five years and fines up to 100,000 baht (US$3,300). Though some pornography filters through on the internet, the government does its best to block offending websites.
Treerat argued that legalising sex toys and pornography would “be one way to reduce rape” as it would give perpetrators a release for their sexual urges.
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He said convicted rapists didn’t usually receive adequate jail sentences, meaning they were likely to repeat the crime once they were released from prison.
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