Celluloid Safety. (Trade Talk).

Virtual sin just got safer in Brazil.

All Brazil-made pornographic videos and erotic movies now must begin with a five-second warning exhorting viewers to "Practice safe sex. Use a condom." The requirement took effect in October under a new law sponsored by legislator Fernando Goncalves of Rio de Janeiro.

Another bill currently under debate in Congress would oblige actors in all porno films produced or imported into Brazil to wear condoms. Both pieces of legislation permit police to confiscate films that fail to comply.

Brazil has won worldwide acclaim for AIDS prevention policies that include free medication for those infected with HIV and broad public information campaigns that promote the use of condoms. Carnaval revelers who bead to Rio de Janeiro's Sambodromo for the annual samba parades, for example, find condoms tucked into their programs. The safe sex warnings and the in-movie condom use are seen as yet another element in the strategy.

Largely through public policy efforts, Brazil cut AIDS deaths to less than 25% of the infected population in 1999, compared to 74% in 1990.