The Chinese government wants every PC to be sold with
software that can block access to online pornography from next
month.
The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said
in an official notice that all PCs shipped in China need to offer
Green Dam/Youth Escort internet filtering software either
pre-installed or as part of basic software packages.
PCs have to be bundled with Green Dam software to be eligible
for the government's subsidy for computers for rural
households.
The move is being presented as an attempt to protect children,
but has raised concerns that the authorities could be trying to
take its internet censorship to a new level, according to the
Financial Times.
Software engineers have said there is a possibility that the
Green Dam software could be used to block content or websites
considered politically subversive by the Chinese government.
The Chinese government routinely blocks access to political
sites, particularly those which challenge the ruling Communist
Party.
Many sites such as
Hotmail and Twitter have been blocked in recent weeks ahead of
the 20th anniversary of the suppression of the Tiananmen Square
protests on 4 June.