China says porn filters are not spywares

Beijing, June 10 (ANI): Chinese authorities have rejected media reports that claim that the government is installing spyware on all computers in the guise of porn filters.

From July onwards, all computers being sold in China will have pornography filtering softwares, but authorities claim that it is not advanced enough to act as spyware.

"The software is designed to filter pornography on the Internet and that's the only purpose of it. The nationwide move is purely to protect the youngsters from Internet pornography and violence. The software has proved to be effective in trials in schools," said Liu Zhengrong, deputy chief of the Internet Affairs Bureau of the State Council Information Office.

Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Qin Gang said the Internet has always been open in China, and the software is only meant to stop the spread of harmful information.

"The Internet filter software is targeted at protecting youths from the spread of pornography and other unhealthy content," the China Daily quoted him, as saying.

"I think anyone who has a child, or would like one, could understand parents' concern about unhealthy content on the Internet," he added.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has invested 6.1 million dollars on the software, which will be pre-installed on new computers.

The General Manager of the Jinhui Computer System Engineering Co has filed a complaint at the Beijing office of the Wall Street Journal, which published the article that accused the government of using the filter to control Internet usage.

"The paper falsely claimed that our software can be used as spyware without having a clear understanding of the product," Zhang Chenmin said.

The filtering software is the latest step taken by the government to clamp down on young people accessing porn and violent contents.

In 2007, Chinese online game operators were ordered to install anti-addiction software in games. (ANI)