Chinese telcos crack down on mobile porn

Last month, the Ministry of Public Security launched a campaign that targets content owners who feature pornography on their WAP sites. Last week, China Mobile reportedly froze contracts with its mobile internet partners until it could clearly decipher whether these partners offered porn-free content.

The Government-issued crackdown includes a reported Rmb 100 million (US$14.7 million) allocation for the development of new technologies to filter out porn on WAP sites, and the campaign is being most heavily focused on cities including Shanghai, Beijing and Guangdong – where many Chinese WAP sites are registered – and will run through the end of the year.

Along with China Mobile, China Unicom has now reportedly issued its own order to content partners, vowing that it will suspend its services for all operators who have not promised to eradicate pornography on WAP sites. Before the weekend, 15 key sites, including People's Daily Online, Sohu and Tencent pledged to block pornographic material from their sites.

China’s third network, China Telecom, also announced that it would block WAP service providers while it examines WAP site content.

The Government launched a similar campaign in February. At the time, the ministries of Public Security, Industry and Information Technology and Culture, along with the State Administration for Industry and Commerce and the General Administration of Press and Publication, joined forces to target handset retailers who offer mobile video and music downloading services.

China’s three telcos provide WAP services to approximately 192 million mobile users in China. In September, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology reported that China has 703 million mobile phone users.