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Outrage over bid to tame Web
By Cui Xiaohuo and Cui Jia (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-18 07:51 In the capital, Li Fangping, a lawyer with Beijing Ruifeng Law Firm, submitted a request to the MIIT last week demanding a public hearing on the "legitimacy and rationality" of having PC manufacturers include the "pornography filtering package". He has yet to receive a response. However, Qiu Baochang, a senior attorney with China Consumers' Association, defended the policy, saying a public hearing was not necessary since the 41.7 million yuan spent on the software was from the central government's budget, which had already been approved by the top legislative body, the National People's Congress, during its annual session in March. China is not the only country to filter the Web, although Western nations have tended to use a very different approach. In most, installing filtering software is considered a personal choice. Some laptops in Britain are pre-fitted with Mcafee's SmartFilter to block access to pornographic, gambling or other non-business-related websites, but users are offered the choice to opt out and continue their surfing if the filtering software finds any unsuitable content. Users only find browsers are terminated when they try to access websites that contain themes such as child abuse or sexual violence. "There is no problem with the government protecting the Chinese youth (by keeping them away from porn), it is the same as what is being done elsewhere in the world," said Professor Chen Lidan, a senior researcher on journalism for Renmin University of China. "But the problem is adults in China, who comprise about two-thirds of the nation's online community, will have to face the fact all computers will be pre-fitted with filters according to the government's stipulation. "If they are told they must share the same level of access as children, isn't it true that their access to information has been stripped?" Filtering software is a $210-million business in Japan, where people can have tailor-made filtering programs developed by Internet companies and pay a monthly fee for the use. But the rules are tougher for Japan's youth, with a regulation introduced on April 1 that demands all cell phone firms put filters on any phones sold to youths under 18 to block pornography and violence. Meanwhile in the United States, most schools and public libraries use loaded filtering software, as stipulated in the Communications Decency Act, the Child Online Protection Act and the Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA). The US Congress has also made several laws in recent years, albeit under the watchful eye of the Supreme Court which makes sure they do not infringe on the freedom of speech.
The American Library Association challenged the CIPA in 2001 arguing "no filtering software successfully differentiates constitutionally protected speech from illegal speech on the Internet". But the US Supreme Court upheld the CIPA on condition "a librarian will unblock filtered material or disable the Internet software filter without significant delay on an adult user's request". Now, while CIPA requires schools and libraries to protect against such computers being used to access obscene images, child pornography or images "harmful to minors" while any such machines are being used by children, the law also states the library can "disable the technology protection measure concerned, during use by an adult, to enable access for bona fide research or other lawful purpose." Professor Xie Xinzhou, deputy dean of the school of journalism and communication at Peking University, said the Chinese government should not interfere if netizens want to view certain online content in private, or when and how they want to view. "There is a boundary for the government with administrative powers and how they make fair laws for online content," he said. "Remember, netizens are also citizens protected by the constitution." Shen Kui, of Peking University, added: "Why does it have to be this authorized software rather than another well-developed option? Why does it have to be applied to all Chinese computer users rather than recommending it to parents?" (For more biz stories, please visit Industries)
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