Government and Policy
Porn penalties to go 'upstream'
By Yan Jie (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-02-04 07:54
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New judicial interpretation hits all online pornography profiteers
China has reinforced its arsenal of laws to ensure a crackdown against online porn, according to a new judicial interpretation that will go into effect today.
The rule will take aim at all interested parties in the online porn business, extending possible penalties upstream as far as onto the telecommunications companies, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate said in a statement.
It was intended to serve as a supplement to its predecessor released in September 2004, as porn has crept into cell phones with access to the Internet, the statement said.
The number of Chinese netizens using cell phones to log online has surged to 233 million as of the end of last year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Chinese Internet users have increased more than four times to 384 million in the past five years.
Wireless carriers, along with advertisers, advertising agents, third-party payment platforms and websites will be targeted if they are found to be involved in the porn business for profits, according to the new rule.
The above five business entities constitute the chain of interests hiding behind the gray business, the statement said.
The first interpretation had only put the end link of the interest chain - the websites - under its sway, Xinhua reported.
The other four links upstream in the online porn business will have to scramble for any evidence in their favor if they try to prove that they were unaware of the porn content on the websites.
A single complaint from any netizen, however, could foil the attempt, according to the rule's definition of awareness.
The rule also enhances the protection for teenagers younger than 14 by cutting the conviction threshold in half from the first judicial interpretation.
For instance, as few as 10 video clips verified as porn depicting such teenagers will carry the sentence of making, copying, publishing, selling and circulating porn articles for making profits, according to the rule.
In the short run, revenues of some advertisers, telecommunication companies and websites will probably be affected by the rule, the statement said.
But it will ultimately help the development of China's Internet, it added.
