Kathmandu
After suffering the stigma of being a nation which sees thousands of its young girls and boys sold to the brothels of neighboring India, the new republic of Nepal now has another dark distinction - the rise of Nepali porn.

The flooding of the once reclusive Himalayan nation with cheap cameras, mobile phones and computers has seen a surge in the number of homemade pornographic films and XXX Nepali cyber sites.

In the 80s, lovers of blue films used to smuggle them to Nepal from India and Bangkok.

Now, such films are being made in Nepal's homes. "Watch these Nepali's (sic) bang hard in desi style", says the cover of a blue DVD readily available in Kathmandu. "Exclusive Nepali sex", boasts another.

What is most disturbing about Nepali blue films circulated on the net is that the "stars" are often actually victims who did not know they were being filmed.

A souvenir seller in tourist city Pokhara told the Nepali Times magazine that she had a brief fling with a Dutch tourist.

Unknown to her, the man filmed them in bed together and now the video is being sold in Nepal and can also be ordered over the Internet.

"I am really stressed out and haven't been able to go to my shop," the 30-year-old woman told the magazine.

A Nepali man from Dharan town in south Nepal had an affair with his friend's wife while living in Britain. He had filmed the romps in bed and stored them in his laptop.

When it crashed and he took it to a shop for repair, the technicians ferreted out the file and began circulating it in Nepal.

The woman's family came to know about it and her father tried to kill himself over the disgrace.

Nepali blue films like "Nepali Lovers: Homemade Hardcore" are, in a way, "a high-tech extension of the exploitation of young Nepali women trafficked for generations by their husbands (and) boyfriends...", the magazine said.

The growing number of Nepali porn movies has made its mark on the blue film industry worldwide. The YouTube mentions them, for one.

Another disturbing factor is that many child abuse films are also from Nepal.

The high-profile scandal this year of Irish poet Cathal O'Searcaigh befriending and abusing street urchins and young boys in Nepal is just one indication that western pedophiles from Britain, the US, Denmark and Norway are now visiting Nepal instead of earlier pedophile destinations Thailand and Cambodia.

Five years ago, a spurt in pedophilia on the Internet let to an Interpol alert. On finding that much of the material was coming from Nepal, Interpol asked the police to investigate.

However, due to the political turbulence shaking Nepal since then, there has been no attempt to crack down on the network.

The menace has grown more widespread with the passage of time and the advancement of technology.

Six years ago, when a Nepali tabloid published a nude photograph of an aspiring starlet, who did not know she was being filmed, the girl killed herself and there was a tremendous social outcry.

More recently, a school teacher in Banke district in the Terai plains abused an eighth grade student, took photographs of her in bed with him with his mobile phone and tried to blackmail her into continuing to have an affair with him when she tried to stop seeing him.

After the girl finally complained to police, Jibacha Yadav, the Maths teacher, was arrested. But there were no more heated public debates.