China’s DIY censor service
p2pnet.net News:- China is now offering Do-It-Yourself parental censorship.
The world’s most aggressive Communist state vigorously suppresses the free exchange of information, jails dissidents who use the Net to communicate with the free world, closes ‘unlicensed’ Internet cafes and already has a number of hard-core censorship schemes in place.
It recently demanded that ISPs sign a ‘self-discipline pact‘ to “prevent cyber crime, the spread of harmful information and unhealthy competition”.
And now it seems it’s taken the idea a stage further.
With a new ‘voluntary’ service, parents can “overlook the time their kids spend on Internet surfing, on-line games and chatting, as well as the content the kids see. It also enables the parents to keep track of what the kids do with the Internet,” says a story from the Chinese state news agency Xinhua..
The Internet is viewed as a double-edged sword in the eyes of many parents,” it leads off. “On one hand, they see the Internet as an useful tool to help the kids know the world better. On the other hand, they fear unhealthy information may erode the minds of their kids, which are susceptible to bad as well as good influences.”
However, they can now avail sign up for a trial China Telecom service, “that bars pornographic and other information unsuitable for minors on home computers has been much welcomed by parents”.
Would-be users submit an application on-line or call the service hotline and “all the subsequent Internet setup can be done automatically”.
China would do well to communicate with senior executives in the west’s entertainment industry who, through trade enforcement units, are close to establishing their own state-approved, technology-based monitoring and control services through various implementations of Broadcast Flag.
