Remember when a survivor of a child pornography racket busted in Kasur had wished for death to escape the horrors? The sordid saga where hundreds were tortured beyond belief did little to put a tab on the paedophile ring. With the shift in the media glare, local authorities even tried playing the blame game in a desperate attempt to cover the monstrosity up. Six years down the road, there are now signs of Prime Minister Imran Khan coming to the aid of those, whose wounds refuse to heal. Quite ironically, their plight did not make it to his official declaration of crusade against pornography. Treading on the path of moral restructuring (probably inspired by our Turk brethren), the premier expressed intent to implement effective gatekeeping to “shield innocent brains against the ruthless onslaught of immoral and pornographic content.” The wish to preserve the much-prized family system against the ever-so-pertinent vices from across shores is a noble cause. Internet pornography is almost always nuanced with abuse and can leave catastrophic imprints on young brains, especially in a society where sex education is still an enigmatic taboo. Well-founded evidence that suggests a close link between access to such material and normalisation of violence has already made its way to parliaments across the world. Probably triggered by a murderer’s confession that stemmed from porn collection, David Cameron’s government had pushed for filtering settings. Similar legislation to limit access to porn was initiated in Iceland. If countries taking great pride in their advocacy of free speech understand how internet porn can fast translate into incitement to hate, Pakistan should do its utmost best to fight the good fight of faith. As has been seen in Iran and Turkey, character-building is a crucial foundation upon which resilient nations can be constructed. Users in Pakistan are known for leading the way in most twisted porn searches and therefore, the PM calling on authorities to put the brakes on the global business was a much-needed move. That the PTA claims to have blocked over 865,000 links of pornographic websites is only a terrifying tip of the dark, dark iceberg. While all forms of immoral content are equally deplorable, the trafficking of pictures and videos of abuse of minors belongs to the dirtiest and dangerous alleys. More worrisome is the fact that child pornography remains obscured in grossly uncharted waters. Tracking its consumption is beyond the pale of the authorities. And not just in Pakistan. Call it a perk of coming from a business that has spread its tentacles far and wide but catching those behind troves of child pornography is an exceedingly difficult task. A great initiative indeed, Mr Prime Minister, but try adding the prevention of new victims to your to-do list. To protect our children from falling prey to the lustful eyes, kick-start an awareness drive in schools and madrassahs to educate the innocent about the sanctity of their bodies. After all, they, too, form the crux of the family structure you take up the cudgels for! *