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Big Brother To Watch Chinese Online
'Virtual cops' to weed out Internet gambling,
porn
The Chinese government will soon assign "virtual cops"
to monitor and wipe out pornography, gambling and other *illicit*
activities on the Internet, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS)
said this week.
By the end of June, the virtual patrols will monitor all major
portals and online forums across China, the ministry said.
Nine other ministerial level government departments and the MPS
will take part in the campaign to weed out what government officials
consider "harmful material and information" and "illicit
activities" on the Internet, starting this (April) month.
Online gambling, vulgarity and fraud are among the top priorities,
the ministry said.
"The existence of these problems has affected the healthy
development of the Internet, brought harm to the youths' minds,
contaminated the social ethos and disrupted the social order,"
Zhang Xinfeng, vice-minister of the MPS was quoted by the Xinhua
News Agency as saying.
Zhang said the infiltration and spread of pornographic materials
from abroad and lax domestic management of the Internet are a problem
Virtual cops first appeared last year in Shenzhen, where the police
inserted a floating cartoon icon of a policeman on major websites.
The sites are linked to the local police stations and have an alarm
system. The success of that program prompted the MPS to take it
nationwide.
Lu Benfu, an Internet expert with the Chinese Academy of Sciences,
said the move would help maintain a clean cyber environment and
deter online crime.
"The simple appearance of these floating icons will remind
people these websites are under surveillance," he said.
In the next six months, the ministries will crack down on illegal
online activities such as distributing pornographic materials and
organising cyber strip shows. They intend to purge the Web of sexually
explicit images, stories, and audio and video clips, a government
spokesman said.
The campaign will also target illegal online lotteries, contraband
trade and fraud, said Zhang.
Last November, police cracked the largest pornographic website
in the country and arrested its creator, Chen Hui, who was later
sentenced to life imprisonment. The website Chen started contained
more than 9 million pornographic images and articles and had more
than 600 000 registered users.
China has about 137 million Internet users, most of whom are young
people.
The South China Morning Post confirmed the story, adding that the
latest campaign will target pornography, online gambling and websites,
chatrooms and other content that it says spread "rumours and
malicious messages".
The crackdown would also cover online forums and blogs as well
as electronic magazines.
The newspaperr says the government statement blamed the spread
of such "harmful materials" on foreign infiltration.
"The fact that many of these problems exist is because a large
quantity of pornographic messages from overseas are spreading to
our country," it added. "Another reason is because our
regulation of the Internet is not systematic and lagging."
The report said many websites allowed surfers to download pornographic
images or take part in gambling activities.
"The existence of these problems...not only poisons the healthy
growth of our young children, but also pollutes our social environment
and disturbs the social order.
"[We must] adopt resolute measures to rectify the situations,"
it added.
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