LOS ANGELES – Vivid Entertainment co-chairman and co-founder Steven Hirsch has called on consumer electronics giant Sony to release the shackles of conservative bondage from the company’s PlayStation3 game console. Specifically, Hirsch wants Sony to allow users worldwide to download hardcore movies to their PS3s via Sony’s PlayStation Network.Has he lost his mind? Kids use that service!

Yes, they do, but during an interview with gaming site MCV, Hirsch contended age-verification should allay any fears minors would be able to obtain high-definition porn with the mere click of a mouse.

Right — because heaven knows that approach has worked so well at other Web destinations. Despite research indicating sexually explicit content is one of the things kids actively seek online, children would not dream of lying about something as mundane as their ages. Besides: Parents are ever-vigilant about where their children go and what they do 24/7.

In Hirsch’s view, making HD porn available via Sony’s PSN has “real potential” for pumping up the adult entertainment industry’s sagging bottom line. Since no federal bailouts to offset flaccid porn revenues appear to be on the horizon, Sony should worry less about the inevitable outcry from American social conservatives than about offering a hand to a suffering corporate comrade.

Incidentally, this is the same Sony that never has been wild — at least officially — about the adult industry sneaking in the back door to convince post-production facilities they should encode porn on Sony’s proprietary Blu-ray Discs. However, despite speculation to the contrary, the adult industry managed to leap that hurdle with remarkable speed. Perhaps Hirsch is on to something with a full-frontal assault on PS3, which incorporates a Blu-ray Disc player.

Adult content reportedly already is available to Japanese PSN users. In addition, Japanese firm DDM in August revealed a plan to offer PS3 porn downloads through DDM.tv, which will be available only in Japan — if and when the service launches. So far, the company has not released a timetable.

Although gaming and technology watchers cannot deny Hirsch’s request has merit from an economic standpoint, several have gotten a good chuckle out of Hirsch’s apparent brass balls for floating the suggestion.

“Don’t hold your breath, Steve,” TVPredictions.com President and Publisher Phillip Swann remarked in a blog posting. “Japan is not the U.S. Sony would take too much flak for permitting adult films here on a device that’s still largely targeted to teens.”

According to Destructoid.com writer Jim Sterling, “The reason why porn won’t be allowed on the PSN worldwide is because the first time someone from FOX News hears about it, there will be a sh*tstorm.

“There are few markets more open to the idea of delicious porn than gamers, but it’s just not something that could be linked to videogames in America or Britain,” Sterling added. “Not while our society is too immature to discuss porn or gaming without flipping out and whipping people up into a misguided moral outrage.”

MCV noted neither the European nor American divisions of Sony Computer Entertainment have received a formal request from Vivid that the studio’s content be hosted at PSN.