Mums' war against web porn

[Photo/the Beijing Youth Daily]

Logging into her website, Xia Haixin is not surprised to find it hacked again.

Xia is part of a group of concerned mothers that launched the country's first anti-porn website four years ago. Known as the "mum judges", Xia and her partners have used their website to report thousands of clues leading to websites spreading "pornographic content", based on tips-offs from net users, to the obscenity watchdog.

She knows a hacked website is the price to pay in order to join in the Chinese government's long-running campaign to clean up the internet.

Tuesday is Safer Internet Day, an occasion to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially amongst children and young people across the world.

According to statistics from China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), China had 256 million minors using the Internet at the end of 2013. A report jointly released by China Youth Association for Network Development and Communication University of China in 2013, showed that 38 percent of surveyed minors accessed pornographic content on the Internet.

"In China, attracting clicks with erotic pictures is all too common, even for mainstream portals. Sometimes links to porn sites simply pop up," said 47-year-old Xia, living in Shijiazhuang, capital city of Hebei Province.

"We couldn't tear our kids away from the computer, so we started the website, hoping to protect them from the dirty information," she said, adding that the site's funding and operation depend on scores of mothers aged between 20 and 50, including public servants, teachers, lawyers and entrepreneurs.

In order to ease their heavy workload, the volunteers have encouraged other web users to directly tip off the authority, Xia said.

"However, many whistleblowers, especially parents, still prefer our help because they don't want to reveal their real names as required by the authority," she said.

She believed perennial attacks on the website were "revenge" from those whose business was terminated by their efforts. "We won't bend to any of them," she said.

In addition to whistleblowing, the volunteers also share anti-porn articles on the website, reply to questions left by visitors and answer calls for help made by young people obsessed with sex. Nevertheless, their fierce opposition to masturbation and homosexuality has fanned criticism from sexologists.

Similarly, a group of Beijing mothers have been helping the government remove pornography from cyberspace since 2010.

Recruited by the Internet Society of Capital, the volunteers, 70 percent of whom have a child in primary or middle school, trolled through adult content in articles and photo collections.

"No doubt the suggestive information will have a negative impact on kids, who are void of judgment," said volunteer Yang Lu.

The concerned mothers not only complained to the authorities, but also delivered their suggestions on building a "child-friendly" online environment to Internet companies, such as the search engine giant Baidu.

Last year, China deleted more than three million pieces of pornographic content in the Internet, according to the National Anti-Pornography and Anti-Illegal Publications Office.

Despite the achievement, the explosive development of the mobile Internet has brought new challenges for anti-porn supervisors.

According to the CNNIC, by the end of 2013, 86 percent of minors used mobile phones to access the Internet, compared with 71 percent using desktops and 51 percent laptops.

"Pornography easily goes viral through mobile phones," a father from Hainan surnamed Song said.

"'If a website is shut down, try the app version' -- my son told me this and I found it's true."

About a year ago, Song happened to find that the teenager's phone contained dozens of nude pictures, as well as obscene videos and articles.

"They were so explicit I felt my cheeks were burning," he said.

In July 2014, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced it will overhaul the operation to re-focus on curbing the dissemination of pornography on apps, by stepping up oversight on manufacturers of mobile phones and tablet devices, as well as app stores.