Regulating sexually explicit content on the Internet : towards reformation of the Thai regulatory approach

This thesis takes as its theme the regulation of Internet pornography in Thailand and the right to freedom of expression.
Humanity has been interested in sexual representations since the ancient times. Our history has shown that newly developed communications and media technologies, such as printing, photography, motion pictures, videos and cable television, have been used to record and disseminate sexual images. The Internet is no exception. The Internet has made pornography more ubiquitous than traditional media. All kinds of pornography, ranging from materials
which depict naked bodies and conventional sexual activities to extreme materials which portray sexual violence, bestiality or necrophilia, are available on the Internet. Furthermore, the Internet has made pornography marc readily accessible. With Internet connectable devices (such as computers, mobile phones and tablet PCs) adults, as well as children, can access Internet pornography with ease.
This situation has stirred up a moral panic, and created great concern to governments in many countries. This is also the case for Thailand. The Thai government has taken a
restrictive position to control and suppress pornography on the Internet by enforcing the Thai obscenity laws and Internet censorship.
There have been some legal studies on the regulation of Internet pornography in Thailand from the perspectives of criminal law and crime control. However, there has not been any legal study which examines this subject from a liberal standpoint within the conceptual framework of freedom of expression before. This thesis aims to take this approach to assess how far the Thai regulatory framework is compatible with the concept of freedom of expression. Its core argument is that pornography is a form of expression, thus the
regulation of pornography should take into account the notion of freedom of expression.
However, this thesis found that the current Thai regulatory framework is hardly in line with the notion of freedom of expression. This thesis, therefore, analytically compares the Thai regulatory approach with the approaches adopted by the Council of Europe and the European Union (which have laid down important policies on Internet content regulation), and the UK (which has an interesting regulatory model for the regulation of lnternet pornography), with an intention to propose a 'new' regulatory framework for Thailand which would be more compatible with the concept of freedom of expression.