Harare — THOUGH the advent of cellphone technology has made life easier for many, it has also come with harms much to the detrimental of the society.

Armed with a cellphone, people can now communicate with their loved ones at the click of a button. One can reach any one across the globe within seconds -- a sure sign that thousands who possess the gadgets can safely claim that they now have the world in their palms.

However, the use of cellphones has fuelled circulation of pornographic material at an alarming rate, particularly among the youths.

Pornography is an explicit description or exhibition of obscene subjects in media to arouse sexual feelings.

Such activities are illegal under the Censorship and Entertainment Act, which stipulates that pornography degrades and demeans the value of mankind.

According to the Act, it is an offence for one to possess "articles that have the tendency to deprive or corrupt the mind of persons who are likely to be exposed to the effect or influence thereof or it is in any way subversive of morality.

"Any one caught in possession of these horrific materials will be liable either to pay a fine or will be imprisoned".

Police spokesperson Chief Inspector Andrew Phiri said the police was concerned with the growing incidents of pornography in the country.

"Police have come across such cases but people should know that the moment one starts showing these captions or videos publicly, it becomes a crime under the Censorship and Entertainment Control Act," he said.

There are different types of pornography that range from moderate to hardcore. The hardcore is the one that shows completely naked people. This is the type of pornography, which is in circulation.

A leap forward from analogue to highly digital phones has made it easy for cellphone technology to download send hardcore pornography to other people whose handsets have such devices as the bluetooth or infrared.

One is able to send or receive porn messages via bluetooth as long as they are within the range of 10 metres and this is done without the requirements of network coverage.

For instance, latest models like a Nokia N93 have high technological features that are being manipulated by culprits to facilitate the circulation of pornography. One can transfer a pornographic video in a twinkle of an eye through blue tooth facility.

Contemporary cellphones like Motorola Razor (V3i) support the Universal Serial Bus (USB) such cellphones are being loaded these horrific materials through the USB facility

Pornographic material is being downloaded from the Internet to laptops and, in turn, transferred to the cellphones through USB facility.

For mobile phones, there is seemingly no limit to its usefulness and capabilities, as has been shown with the various uses of phones.

Prior to the genesis of cellphones, the Internet fuelled the growth of the pornographic industry, where with a single stroke on the keyboard, viewers could access pornographic material.

Some cellphone vendors are disposing preloaded cellphones even to young children who in turn show and transfer the pornographic videos to friends.

In one incident, Colleen Muperekerwa, who is employed in the cellphone industry in Bulawayo, was convicted on his own plea of guilt after he sold a preloaded cellphone to a 14-year-old kid who was caught showing his fellow mates the graphic videos.

Some are even using the video camera facility to capture friends and then edit the caption before selling it as pornography material.

Nokia N90, one of the manipulated mobile phones, has a megapixel camera, with a rotating display (262K colours) ideal for shooting pictures and videos with a built in 2 mega-pixel camera.

A woman who lives in the Avenues area in Harare said circulating this type of material was inhuman.

"It is a shame that some people have become inhuman. I don't know what prompted me to explore my boyfriend's Samsung D800 because what I saw was very disheartening. I saw a pornographic video of him and his former girlfriend," said the woman.

Kenneth Mutepfa, a Christian, was shocked to find out that his cellphone contained pornographic material, a development he got to know when he wanted to upgrade his phone.

"I decided to race with technology by upgrading my cellphone, but I got the shock of my life in my newly acquired cellphone. It contained five different captions of pornographic videos

"I am a Christian and what I was exposed to stands at a very sharp contrast with my religion. What people don't know is that these graphics tend to devalue our morals, above all these videos are not ethical at all," said Mutepfa.

One of the young men involved in loading the porn videos and tones for clients claims he is also disgruntled with his job, but he has no choice.

"Some, including grown-ups, come to my office asking for recent porno videos regularly. They get so grumpy if I fail to supply them with new 'stuff'. I must admit that my job is not morally right but this is how I earn a living," he said.

He also made it clear that some clients refused to buy a handset once they discovered that it did not have accessories to load pornographic videos.

Emerging cellphone technology will always be viewed as a very dangerous and threat to our morals though it is one of the world's greatest inventions of mankind to enhance human communication.