Government plans to provide software to block lewd online material.
By Sherri L. Shaulis
05/14/2008
SEOUL, South Korea - The South Korean government is taking a stand against online pornography, requiring peer-to-peer program managers to screen out pornographic material and dictating that anyone downloading pornographic video clips from overseas IP addresses be censored.
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology issued the directive on Wednesday and also said more surveillance cameras will be installed at schools to monitor for possible sexual assaults. The government also plans to provide software to block lewd online material.
According to a report in The Korea Times, the plan is part of the government's program to combat lewd material in various media outlets "to prevent children from accessing sexually explicit content that sometimes leads to sex crimes."
The government is cracking down on online pornography distributors, with 3,300 experts investigating user-created clips and other video material by the end of the month, The Korea Times reported.
The government's measures came after offenders in recent gang rapes among elementary-school students in Daegu testified that they received information from online pornography and erotic films on cable television.
Research by the health ministry in 2007 found that 88 percent of teens who have watched pornography said they got the material online, The Korea Times reported.
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