China plans to censor personal computers

CHINA IS planning to introduce new rules which would require all personal computers sold in the country as of July 1st to be supplied with software that blocks access to certain websites, a move that could give government censors new levels of control over how users access the internet.

“Green Dam-Youth Escort” software would block access to banned websites by connecting to a database. The software, which will come either pre-installed or as a separate CD-Rom, would complement existing software which blocks numerous search-engine terms deemed politically sensitive or pornographic.

The news comes at a busy period for the so-called Great Firewall of China, which has seen websites such as the video-sharing site YouTube and the social networking service Twitter blocked, apparently to stop controversial postings related to issues such as Tibetan independence and the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

A report in the Wall Street Journal said the move was mainly aimed at stopping pornography and protecting young people from “harmful” content.

Since early this year, the government has been running a major campaign against online smut. More than 1,900 websites have been shut down since the beginning of the campaign and websites including Google and Baidu, China’s most popular search engine, were criticised early on for providing links to unapproved sites.

The ministry of industry and information technology issued a notice on May 19th to personal computer-makers that PCs to be sold in China as of July 1st must be pre-loaded with the software.

There are fears the software could be used to censor political postings, even though its manufacturers say the programme can be turned on and off by consumers.

The software can be used to stop the use of proxy servers or programmes to get around website blocks, which are used by some netizens to get around existing restrictions. China has the world’s largest online population at nearly 300 million web users.