Wednesday, February 13, 2008

China Targeting the Internet to Stop Juvenile Crime

China is targeting illegal Web sites, computer markets, and Internet cafes to attack online games that are considered too violent and unhealthy to try to stop juvenile crime. The crackdown is being called “Operation for Tomorrow” and is also aimed at Web sites that offer unregistered playing platforms or services that can be downloaded. They hope that this plan will improve the environment, prevent, and reduce juvenile crime and illegal activities.

China already monitors the Internet for anti-government speech and uncensored news reports. The new plan mainly targets school dropouts, runaways, children of inmates, and children that have been left behind by parents that migrated to different areas for work. Unlicensed Internet cafes would be closed down and there would be tighter supervision over legal cafes. The China government is blaming Internet cafes for promoting juvenile crime and school truancy. Online pornography will also be attacked in the crackdown.

The crackdown is meant to increase government supervision and control the services of groups of people that they feel are vulnerable and easily impressionable. They also plan to increase the supervision over domestic and foreign charity groups and other non-government organizations.

No comments: