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Father takes on rising cell porn
By Yan Jie (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-27 07:54 The drama only needed one spam message to kick off, but the leading figure never expected it to reach such a climax. On a windy day earlier this year, Li Qiang, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, had a seductively titled text message containing a link slipped into his cell phone's inbox. It was not until he clicked the link by chance more than two weeks later that he discovered a whole new world for his phone, or possibly for all Chinese cell phone users - mobile pornography. Li was shocked to discover that such a huge amount of obscene information was available for cell phone users, including an increasing number of children and teenagers, and just a click away.
Indeed, Li, father of a teenage girl and holder of a doctorate, is a man with zero-tolerance to pornography of all kinds. "Such a problem will destroy a whole country and its people if it is not put under control," said the researcher in an interview with China Daily yesterday. Li has filed three reports on pornography for mobile phones since March this year. One of the reports blamed China's wireless carriers, particularly China Mobile, the country's largest carrier, for failing to oversee the pornographic websites tailored for mobile phones due to the carriers' own business interests. Mobile pornography boosted subscribers' use of paid services such as wireless Internet and music and video downloading, the researcher said. Mobile carriers take a cut from the fees before distributing the profits to their partners who produce music and video clips, he said. Li reported the rogue websites to the police in Beijing and other government departments responsible for online security. In June, he even filed a lawsuit against China Mobile's branch in the Chinese capital over the issue. However, the case has not attracted much attention from the public and became deadlocked after a second trial in September. Li declined to discuss the case in detail because he feared media exposure could influence the court, which has yet to issue a ruling over the matter. Luo Lin, a press officer of China Mobile's Beijing branch, confirmed the verdict is pending. She refused to comment on the case because she is not authorized to speak on the issue with media. Still, Li made a splash by turning to the media for his cause, a move that spurred a national campaign led by nearly a dozen ministry-level government departments against pornography for mobile phones, much to his surprise - and China Mobile's as well. "I never foresaw this, absolutely not," Li said, when asked if he had expected the recent full-scale media reports exposing mobile pornography. Li first played whistleblower in June seeking coverage from a Beijing-based tabloid. Several Chinese national media outlets followed suit, coinciding with a three-month crackdown on online pornography led by China's Ministry of Public Security. Li became a favorite interviewee on the topic for several national newspapers, and in early November he landed in the studio of a prime time news program hosted by State broadcaster China Central Television, appealing to the audience for its support. Seeing how his calls have received such attention, however, Li is beginning to take a careful approach. "China Mobile is a State-owned giant," he said. "So I have to watch my mouth." But with his daughter studying in senior high school, Li is now considering a new measure to combat mobile porn. "We are preparing to propose to the Ministry of Education to ban teenage students' use of cell phones to log online." (China Daily 11/27/2009 page5) |
