China will improve its long-term mechanism to combat Internet
pornography, according to a senior official of the Ministry of
Information Industry Thursday.
Xi Guohua, vice-minister of information industry, told Xinhua
that it takes more than a day to create a green on-line world, and
that the long-term supervision mechanism should be improved for
"combating the Internet porn completely."
Fourteen ministries including the Ministry of Information
Industry and the Ministry of Public Security launched a nationwide
campaign from July 16 to crack down on pornographic websites.
Nearly 700 pornographic websites have been taken down in
Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing municipalities and Liaoning and
Guangdong provinces.
According to Xi, the ministry will further its supervision on
Internet information security in several areas:
The first one is to improve the means of supervision. On one
side, the ministry is preparing to set down new regulations to
clarify who should be responsible for each ring and the punishment
if anyone violates the laws and regulations.
On the other hand, the ministry is organizing experts to
research an on-line auto-reporting system and improve the
information database based on searching IP (Internet Protocols)
addresses so as to fix the wanted information and the party
responsible for them as soon as possible.
The second aspect is to improve supervision of text message
service providers. Xi said his ministry, together with the Ministry
of Public Security and the Information Office of the State Council,
will set new regulations on text message services to punish those
who spread pornographic information via text messages.
The third aspect is to bring the role of the China Internet
Association into play and urge websites to be self-disciplined.
The fourth is to further the cooperation of related departments
and ministries to improve the long-term working mechanism. Xi said
all the related departments are expected to use their advantages to
combat Internet porn.
(Xinhua News Agency August 13, 2004)