The South China Morning Post reports:

Seeking to ferret out online games considered overly violent or unhealthy, the central government has targeted illegal websites, computer markets and Internet cafes as part of a campaign to rein in juvenile crime.

The crackdown, “Operation For Tomorrow”, is also aimed at websites offering unregistered playing platforms or services for gamers that can be downloaded, the official Xinhua News Agency said on Tuesday.

The plan would “use the law to attack, investigate and prosecute … to cleanse the environment in which young people are raised and prevent and reduce juvenile crime and illegal activity”, the report said.

Authorities strictly monitor the internet for anti-government speech and uncensored news reports, but the report made no mention of such content.

Xinhua said the plan especially targeted school dropouts, runaways, children of inmates, and children left behind by parents who had migrated for work.

… Online pornography would also be attacked under the crackdown, the report said.

… Like most such measures, the crackdown seeks to increase government supervision and control over services for vulnerable groups.

While promoting government shelters and other official services, it will step-up supervision over domestic and foreign charity groups and other non-governmental organizations, the report said.

There were reports in December of 2007 about juvenile crime and the internet, mostly blaming the kids who hang out in internet cafes for online crime.

I haven’t seen the Xinhua report, but this seems very vague. Is it meant to curb online crime committed by juveniles via illegal websites? Is it meant to clamp down on undesirable online games? Does it target pirated online games (or whatever an unregistered platform is)? Is it a crackdown on dissolute youth? What do charity groups and NGOs have to do with this?

Who’s shooting this blunderbuss?

The report carried the authority of an official announcement because it was posted on the website of the Central Committee for Comprehensive Management of Public Security. Xinhua is state-owned and often serves the function of proclaiming official policies.

The committee is a high level co-ordination and advisory body for public security departments under the central cabinet and Communist Party Central Committee.

Enforcers will act under guidelines adopted last year by 14 government departments, including the Culture Ministry, State Administration for Industry and Commerce, Public Security Ministry, and Information Industry Ministry, the report said.

The Central Committee for Comprehensive Management of Public Security, that’s who.

I have absolutely no insight into the workings of the Chinese government and had never heard of this organization until today. But this is the second story that mentions this committee. They are the same organization that will start “supervising” virtual worlds in China.

I can only guess that the Chinese government intends to mount a crusade against all the socially objectionable elements of the internet in China. They have given themselves a broad remit and face an enormous internet space with millions of websites, tens of thousands of internet cafes, huge university campus networks, and millions and millions of young people. Investigations mean licenses to review, data connectivity to trace, people to interview, records to check, etc., etc. They may catch some malefactors, but China’s internet space is already too big. And it’s getting bigger, really quickly.

The operation for tomorrow starts today. And starts again tomorrow with thousands of new data points to digest. And the tomorrow after that…

'); //-->

ShareThis