Adhoc, a Cambodian rights group, has called for state censorship of pornography, saying it is contributing to the country’s rising problem with sexual assaults, The Phnom Penh Post reported.
According to the report released by the group on Wednesday on the situation of women and children’s rights during the first semester of 2015, Adhoc registered 131 cases of rape in the first six months of this year.
Among those attacks, 100 were committed against underage girls, including 37 cases involving girls below the age of 10.
The report also noted an increase in rapes being committed by men against their elderly mother-in-laws, “often older than 80 years old”, as well as fathers raping their daughters, grandfathers raping their granddaughters, and male minors raping younger girls.
Pornography online and at markets combined with drug and alcohol abuse are a contributing factor in this deterioration, the report said, calling for the government to impose strict censorship.
Adhoc director Thun Saray echoed the report’s call for a return to “Cambodian values”, and called for a crackdown on internet cafes and market vendors who facilitate the viewing of pornography by young people.
On the fact that more than three-quarters of rapes reported to Adhoc involved minors, Saray suggested it was because many women in rural communities migrate in search of work when they hit 18, leaving an imbalance of working age men in communities.
Among rape cases reported, only 47 had resulted in convictions. The rest remain unresolved or closed with compensation payments that allow rapists to escape prison sentences – which the report states are often encouraged by local authorities.