China vows to build a "green" Internet
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-08-12 21:20

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 the Ministry, told Xinhua 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 the 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.