Sex Sells (until shut down)

Sex Sells, says the old advertising cliche and this seems to apply to Vietnam at least as much as other places.

Sex sells products, newspapers, books, movies and yes websites too.

One of these was just shut down for operating from Vietnam, though a host of others remain in operation from the US and overseas beyond Vietnam's peaceful, policed and puritanical shores...

Police shut down X-rated site

Police from the Ministry of Public Security Monday said they had closed down the biggest illegal sex website ever operated in Vietnam.

The police collaborated with relevant agencies in different localities across the country to catch 10 people considered to be the most active in running the www.mocxi.com website over the past few years.

The website was promoted as an “education forum for a healthy teenage sex life” but it contained photos and movies of sex acts, posted by account holders.

Statistics say the forum attracted more than 289,000 member accounts and posted more than 1,650,000 items about sex.

More here:
Investigation expanded in porno website case

More arrested related to black web

Educational?

Now one might reasonably question whether this site's goals were really educational, but there can be no doubt that Vietnam could use a crash course in sex education. Their mission statement: education forum for a healthy teenage sex life was right on the money!

Unwanted teen pregnancies are rife in Vietnam, resulting in one of the world's highest abortion rates. Press reports suggest that HCMC has more abortions than live births!

VietNamNet - More abortions than births in HCM City

The reason for this crisis is widely believed to be a lack of sex education among the young, many of whom do not even understand the basics of reproduction and contraception.

Vietnam's High Abortion Rate, Lack of Sex Education Among Young ...

Of course cruising sex forums and porn sites is unlikely to provide much enlightenment to the young, but there is clearly a need.

Mocxi (Mocxi.com) had enough traffic to rank among Vietnam's top 100 websites according to Alexa, a place they will now be cede to some other porn site no doubt...

Meanwhile another brave entrepreneur has been wading into these waters LEGALLY with some apparent success, opening the county's first adult shop (sans porn).

HCM City shoppers buy into Safe Sex

A shop devoted to-tally to adult sexual needs has opened in HCM City. It is said to be the first of its kind in Viet Nam.

Owner Dinh Dai Ngan, a 22-year-old student of logistics, is completely relaxed talking about his shop, Safe Sex.

Opened in June, it has the motto, Chac nhu bap, which translates as "hard as corn" or "Sure as Corn" in Vietnamese. "It’s related to the quality and safety of our contraceptive products," says Ngan. "People want it to be 100 per cent sure. But the sentence also has a double meaning."

Located at 166 Bui Huu Nghia, Binh Thanh District, the 20sq.m shop sells contraceptives, pregnancy tests and, of course, aphrodisiacs.

"We also sell flavoured condoms, condoms with rubber spines - also known as Love Rubbers, vibrating rings and massage lubricants," Ngan says...

Ngan’s friends and relatives thought he was crazy when he told them about his new business. "No one had opened such a shop in Viet Nam. It was totally risky, both commercially and culturally," says Ngan.

"It was unknown territory as sex is a sensitive topic in our conservative society. To open an ‘adult shop’ was a challenging idea, but I saw the potential for business...

"But most of the time, we don’t have customers that shy. Our customers want to know everything. Some of them even ask us when we will have more products, more toys, more magazines."

Ngan’s shop seems to be quite a symbol of Viet Nam’s modern reforms. "I started this business out of a simple idea, he says. I was reading a foreign magazines and I fell on an article talking about sex shops. I told my girlfriend that we should have one in Viet Nam."

Ngan says he intends to develop Safe Sex into a long-standing brand. "But I also want to sell more diverse products. At present, we are limited by what is imported by local distributors. But eventually, I am confident people will have a broader attitude towards sex. I hope my shop can help in the process."

One can only wish him and his safe sex message well.

Now if only the government and the rest of the population could get their heads around the need for more and better sex education the country would be a lot better off.