p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- Starting on July 1, every PC sold in China should be shipped with built-in censoring technology designed to work with Microsoft Windows, say the country’s Communist leaders.

Called Green Dam Youth Escort software, it’s designed to block access to certain Web sites, says the Wall Street Journal, going on although the government has already told global PC makers about the requirement, it, “has yet to announce it to the public”.

As usual, in this latest attempt to stifle online freedom of speech, China is claiming it wants to protect young people from online porn pornography.

The Jinhui Computer System Engineering Co, the main developer of Green Dam Youth Escort, works with China’s security ministry and military, says the story, continuing

The word “green” in Chinese is used to describe Web-surfing free from pornography and other illicit content. Green Dam would link PCs with a regularly updated database of banned sites and block access to those addresses, according to an official who tested the product for a government agency.

The May 19 Chinese government notice about the requirement says it is aimed at “constructing a green, healthy, and harmonious Internet environment, and preventing harmful information on the Internet from influencing and poisoning young people.”

China’s existing, and extensive, Net censor system, blocks access to a range of content at the network level, “and many users circumvent it,” the WSJ notes, stating the new method could give the government a way to tighten its control.

Having a universal application, “that opens a link into every computer could also make those computers more vulnerable to cyber attacks,” the story says, quoting “foreign industry officials who have examined the software”.

“The Web site of Dazheng, the other software company involved in developing Green Dam, says the company works with the Armored Engineering Institute of the People’s Liberation Army, and that it helped the PLA in 2005 produce a system to intercept ‘confidential’ documents,” says the sgtory, adding:

“Wang Jingcheng, deputy general manager of Dazheng, said the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has ’strict regulations and forbids all software companies from collecting any personal information’.”

Green Dam will block content “according to the law,” he stated.

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Wall Street Journal – China Squeezes PC Makers, June 8, 2009