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o matter how hard the government has tried to eradicate pornography, the reality is that its trade in the capital continues to thrive.

People can still go to so-called “centers of pirated DVDs” in the city and find pornographic movies sold there, though many aficionados now prefer to watch it online or download it and share with the others.

DVD vendors in Glodok, West Jakarta, eagerly offer passers-by films with nude actresses on the covers.

“Which one do you like? Local, Asian or Western?” a seller, who requested to be identified as Herdi, asked a potential customer at his stall.

Herdi said that although the situation has changed since the sex-tape scandal involving now-jailed pop-singer Nazriel Irham, better known as Ariel Peterpan, made international headlines, it was still business-as-usual for him — even if he needs to occasionally play hide-and-seek with the police.

The Jakarta Police have regularly conducted raids on pornographic -DVD sellers in the capital, but this has never been seen an effective measure to end the trade.

“I can still sell some movies in a day. Most of the buyers prefer the Western ones. The stars in local movies are usually fake: they’re from Thailand,” he said.

He has been setting the price of the DVDs at Rp 6,000 apiece, but he usually lowered that to Rp 5,000 if more than 10 movies were purchased at the one time.

The issue of pornography has again been captured in the media spotlight after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono this week formed an anti-pornography task force, led by Coordinating People’s Welfare Minister Agung Laksono.

The Task Force for the Management and Prevention of Pornography was set up to implement the 2008 Pornography Law and would be responsible for curbing distribution. The task force would later have offices established in all provinces and regencies across the country.

The national task force are to report to the President, and the provincial and regency task forces will report to their respective governors or regents.

The government has banned Internet pornography since 2010. The Communications and Information Ministry ordered local Internet service providers to block access to all pornographic websites, a decision that has reaped criticism because many experts have doubted the effectiveness of such a measure.

Despite derision over the calls for the banning of pornography, many people seem undisturbed in their predilection for adult videos. The Internet has made access to such films even easier.

Private-sector employee Agustian, 29, said that he had no problems with the establishment of the task force, but dismissed the idea that his days of watching X-rated movies were coming to an end.

He said that although the government claimed that it had successfully blocked 90 percent of the world’s pornographic websites, he could still find ways to access them online.

“I’m still downloading or watching them from one of the banned sites, but it all can be hacked. It’s as easy as clicking your mouse,” he said.

Agus said that he used to buy pornographic DVDs, but he now preferred to stream them over the Internet or download them onto his computer.

He said that the establishment of task force was simply a waste of time and money that would show no significant progress in the total elimination of pornography from Indonesia.

Chandra (not his real name), 26, said that he had no problem getting access to and watching pornography.

“I usually get the movies from some friends who download them, and then I just copy it,” he said.

Along with Ariel, the chief editor of the Indonesian edition of Playboy, Erwin Arnada, fell victim to the controversial 2008 law.

He was sent to prison — even though no nudity was depicted in his magazine.

Nudity has often been associated with pornography in Indonesia. However, some artists and photographers have tried to challenge that perception by showing their works through various exhibitions in the capital.