Porn rife at vietnamese cybercafes
HANOI - Up to 80% of computers in Internet cafes in Ho Chi Minh City contain saved pornographic pictures and stories, an inspector from Vietnam’s Culture and Information Ministry said Wednesday.
Internet cafe owners have been told by ministry officials to monitor customers browsing and erase any stored material, according to Nguyen Van Khanh from the ministry.
«Even though they are just pictures and stories, they are the roots of an unhealthy lifestyle which is against tradition and customs,» Khanh said.
No Internet cafe owners have been arrested in the porn crackdown, and the percentage of computers with stored pornography has decreased since the last government sweep, he said.
In July, 93% of Ho Chi Minh City’s Internet cafe computers were found to have stored pornographic material, the official said.
More than one million people now log onto the Internet in Vietnam, according to state media. The communist government has gradually tightened control of the Internet over the past few months with a series of new regulations.
Earlier this year the Culture and Information Ministry laid down broadly defined but strictly enforced guidelines about the «inappropriate information» that is «harmful to the nation» and banned from domestic websites.
«Inappropriate information» includes pornography, but also anything criticising the communist government, which operates a firewall that prevents access to a number of pro-reform and human rights organisations.
According to international press freedom organisations, at least three cyber dissidents have been detained in Vietnam this year for criticising the communist regime on Vietnamese-language websites.
The Star (.au) - December 19, 2002
|