China tries to stop teenagers’ access to porn
Pornography is an issue at many levels for some societies. Some oppose it on moral terms, others for the potential abasement of women. The US is a prolific producer of porn, but is not alone in this. Traditional societies, such as many Middle Eastern countries, see the prevalence of porn as yet another reason to oppose US influence. Porn is everywhere, and nowhere more accessible than from the Internet. China, in an attempt doomed to fail, wants all personal computers sold domestically there to come with software that blocks access to online pornography. In a statement of the glaringly obvious the manufacturer of the porn-blocking software said “…many teenage students have become familiar with Internet pornography and they commonly share the addresses of pornographic Web sites with one another.”
Teenagers are teenagers, whether they are in San Francisco, Beijing or anywhere else. Teenagers have often yet to develop sound judgement, but they have certainly mastered available technology. If the Chinese authorities think shipping computers with an inbuilt password driven porn filter will stop teenagers from accessing porn, then they are in for a rude awakening. Hackers have found access to way more secure systems, and the porn purveyors will also quickly find a way around the software too. In addition, in our humble opinion and despite their fears, China will benefit in the longer term by freeing up Internet access, not limiting it. Despite the Internet being the ultimate democratic engagement medium, this process will also include teenagers looking at porn sites…it is the way of things:
Sphere: Related ContentChina, which has the world’s largest population of Internet users at more than 250 million, this year launched a nationwide crackdown on Internet pornography, which is banned in China. More than 1,900 Web sites have been shut down since the beginning of the campaign and Web sites including Google and Baidu, China’s most popular search engine, were criticized for linking to suspect sites.
According to the Wall Street Journal on Monday, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a notice on May 19 to personal computer-makers that PCs to be sold in China as of July 1 must be preloaded with the software.
