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Online pornography crackdown to create healthy cyberspace
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CHINA’S latest crackdown on online pornography is crucial to the development of the internet, experts have said.
Bu Xiting, an official at the Communication University of China, says the campaign is a sign of the government’s determination to create a healthy cyberspace. “It shows that China is taking an important step toward the rule of law in the virtual world,” Bu said.
China has built up the world’s biggest population of internet users in decades of breakneck internet development.
Forums, websites and online game ads have exerted a bad influence by promoting themselves with sexual content, which is why the government needs to step in, he said. Last Sunday, China launched a sweeping campaign against the spread of online pornography.
Called “Cleaning the Web 2014,” the campaign will carry out thorough checks on websites, search engines and mobile application stores, Internet TV USB sticks, and set-top boxes, according to the National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications.
All online texts, pictures, videos and advertisements with pornographic content will be deleted, it said.
Websites, web channels and columns will be shut down or have their administrative license revoked if they produce or spread pornography, it said.
Websites, telecom operators and web portals were told to examine their own work immediately and clean up illegal information and links.
This is the latest effort by Chinese authorities to stamp out inappropriate online content, and they regularly issue orders and mete out stiff penalties to address rampant web porn.
In 2011, the government awarded 9.3 million yuan (US$1.47 million) to 2,129 people who reported pornographic internet and mobile phone content to authorities, officials said. In late 2012, a two-month campaign was launched against pornographic and illegal publications nationwide. Meanwhile, major web portals and telecom operators signed a letter of commitment vowing to end the spread of online pornography.
In October 2013, Chinese police broke up four international child porn websites and arrested more than 250 suspects in a joint operation with foreign police. It happened five months after Chinese authorities seized 180,000 online publications involved in dissemination of pornography, according to the Ministry of Public Security. Bu said that the latest drive, which will last until November, is both inevitable and necessary, since the internet is still overrun with pornographic content due to loose supervision.
Han Jun, deputy dean at the journalism school of Northwest University, said the new campaign will drive home the message that what is immoral and illegal in the real world remains so when it is transferred to the internet.
“Rampant pornography has disrupted social order and tainted the image of the country as a whole, having a bad influence on the public, particularly minors,” she said.
Bu said that China should ramp up supervision to create a healthier online community. “The government should improve its legal mechanism regarding the internet to supervise the virtual world more efficiently,” he urged.
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