Houston Community News >> China launch Virtual Web Patrol
8/28/2007 (AP) BEIJING-- Police
in China's capital said Tuesday they will start patrolling the Web using
animated beat officers that pop up on a user's browser and walk, bike or drive
across the screen warning them to stay away from illegal Internet content.
Starting Sept. 1, the cartoon alerts will appear every half hour on 13 of
China's top portals, including Sohu and Sina, and by the end of the year will
appear on all Web sites registered with Beijing servers, the Beijing Public
Security Ministry said in a statement.
China stringently polices the Internet for material and content that the ruling
Communist Party finds politically or morally threatening. Despite the controls,
nudity, profanity, illegal gambling and pirated music, books and film have
proliferated on Chinese Internet servers.
The animated police appeared designed to startle Web surfers and remind them
that authorities closely monitor Web activity. However, the statement did not
say whether there were plans to boost monitoring further.
The male and female cartoon officers, designed for the ministry by Sohu, will
offer a text warning to surfers to abide by the law and tips on Internet
security as they move across the screen in a virtual car, motorcycle or on foot,
it said.
If Internet users need police help they can click on the cartoon images and will
be redirected to the authority's Web site, it said.
"We will continue to promote new images of the virtual police and update our
Internet security tips in an effort to make the image of the virtual police more
user friendly and more in tune with how web surfers use the Internet," it said.
China has the world's second-largest population of Internet users, with 137
million people online, and is on track to surpass the United States as the
largest online population in two years.
The government routinely blocks surfers from accessing overseas sites and closes
down domestic Web sites deemed obscene or subversive.
Contributed by Associated Press