Free Republic

Over the last year, China has made a major effort to protect adult Internet users from pornography, and children on the Internet from, well, everything. In that time, China has closed over 15,000 websites it considered pornographic. In doing this, over 1.5 million images, videos and other items were removed from the Internet. Over 5,000 people were arrested, and over 1,500 were prosecuted. As for the children, well, last May, the government notified all companies selling computers in China that, as of July 1st, they had to install new filtering software (called "Green Dam Youth Escort"). This was mainly an...

China has a long history of restricting internet access, but the Green Dam initiative would have represented a new front in the war on information. For the last decade, China has been fighting – and largely losing – a running battle against the internet, and the free access to information it brings. The government, so used to managing and monitoring the flow of news and disemmination of information within its borders, has at times appeared impotent in the face of a universal technology that has no respect for time zones or geography.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- A small software firm in the tony enclave of Santa Barbara may have helped personal computer makers fend off demands by the Chinese government for mandatory Web-filtering software on all PCs sold in China.When the Chinese government delayed the requirement for Green Dam software, it did not give a new timetable on when the software had to be installed. No reasons were given, but some speculate that fear of being party to political censorship wasn't the only reason. See full story. Last month, researchers at the University of Michigan found two big problems with Green Dam,...

China's Green Dam Youth Escort plans have been shelvedIn June news broke of an ambitious new campaign in China to filter it citizen's computers.  Titled the Green Dam Youth Escort, it required all new computers to come with filtering software.  While China claimed the move was to protect against pornography, many citizens feared further government monitoring and computer manufacturers didn't enjoy being forced to include the new software. Now China's government-run Xinhua news agency has announced that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology would "delay the mandatory installation of the controversial 'Green Dam-Youth Escort' filtering software on new computers." Wen...