The big story of the day, as picked up by quite a few of the blogs I read, is this new software touted by the government that would allow parents and teachers to filter out pornographic web sites from the impressionable eyes of today’s youth.

Rebecca MacKinnon is all over this story (this is her area of expertise) and has the details:

Today’s Wall Street Journal has a provocative story headlined China Squeezes PC Makers: Beijing Is Set to Require Web Filter That Would Block Government-Censored Sites.

The picture above comes from the official website for “Green Dam Youth Escort,” the software which according to the Journal, PC makers will be required to distribute along with their products sold in China. You can download it here, read the latest news about it here, and participate in a user forum here. The picture shows children sitting at their computers, being sheilded by a screen labeled “Green Dam Youth Escort green web surfing filtering software,” held up by arms labeled “government” and “finance.” The nasty looking black globls say “harmful website” and “harmful information.”

According to this press release dated June 8th China time, after a period of testing and evaluation, the “Green Dam Youth Escort” software received government blessing in April to be made available for free public download. The press release says that the software has been downloaded over 3 million times since the end of March and is being used by approximately 2279 schools, with installation in nearly 518 thousand computers. It also says that 6957 websites have installed the software. It says that the Ministry of Information Industry is working with the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance, and the State Council Information Office to get the software installed in primary and middle schools across the country. The final sentence of the press release also announces the companies including Lenovo, Inspur, and Hedy have agreed to pre-install “Green Dam Youth Escort” in their products, with the software already installed in more than 52.7 million units. No foreign companies are mentioned.

According to the Journal:

The software was developed by Jinhui Computer System Engineering Co., with input from Beijing Dazheng Human Language Technology Academy Co.

Bryan Zhang, founder of Jinhui, said Green Dam operates similarly to software designed outside China to let parents block access to Web content inappropriate for children. Some computers sold in China already come with parental-control software, but it isn’t government-mandated.

Mr. Zhang said his company compiles and maintains the list of blocked sites, which he says is limited to pornography sites. He said the software would allow the blocking of other types of content, as well as the collection of private user data, but that Jinhui would have no reason to do so. He also said the software can be turned off or uninstalled.

His company plans to transmit new banned addresses to users’ PCs through an Internet update system similar to that used by operating-system software and antivirus programs.

The software requirement was outlined in a notice that was issued by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on May 19 but that hasn’t yet been publicized by state media. The notice, a copy of which was seen by The Wall Street Journal, says PC makers must ship PCs to be sold in China as of July 1 with the Green Dam software “preloaded” — pre-installed or enclosed on a CD.

The notice says PC producers will be required to report to the government how many PCs they have shipped with the software. The notice doesn’t mention any punitive action for noncompliance.

The Journal also reports that the software can be disabled. I hope the Citizenlab or somebody will do a thorough test to answer at least two questions: How extensive is the list of filtered terms and does it really contain no political content as Mr. Zhang claims?

Really tough for me to get too excited about this one. First, it does seem to be aimed more at pornography that other types of content. Second, if they are relying on folks to download software or install the program from a CD, well, that is hardly coercive.

To me, this is more interesting within the context of the government’s longstanding fight against pornography, something I’ve written about several times before.

With all the weird shit out there on the Net these days, heaven forbid that a kid will get a look at a pair of boobies. Might scar the child for life.

You know, I’m more than a little disappointed with the anti-pornography campaigns over here. I’m used to that sort of thing in some parts of the U.S. — remember that many Americans have an excuse for their nutty actions. If they do not rid the world of pictures of boobies, Jesus will cry.

Much more complicated story in China. I’m no Confucian scholar, but certainly folks that go in for the kinky stuff run the risk of not living up to their familial duties. Maybe that’s where this all starts, I don’t know. Confucianism is inherently conservative in many ways.

However, this perspective does not really explain the hamfisted approach to all sorts of “pornographic” content. You don’t need to espouse Calvinistic tenets to show your support for strong social ties.

I’m not a pornoholic (not that there’s anything wrong with that), but folks that rail against such things invariably do so from a base of irrationality. One wishes that a modern society like China, which is (officially) not hung up on religion and superstition, could move beyond the fear of nudity, but I guess we haven’t reached that point yet.