By Emma Graham-Harrison. In China, the answer is that a new government-mandated Internet filter rates some pictures of all four of them as bad for your moral health. Customers use computers at an internet cafe in Taiyuan, Shanxi province June 29, Beijing has ordered all personal computers sold in China from July 1 to be preinstalled with the Green Dam software, which it says is designed to block pornographic and violent images, and which critics fear will be used to extend censorship.
But a trial of the program, which is available online for free download www. Green Dam has not detailed how it scans images for obscene content, but computer experts have said it likely uses color and form recognition to zoom in on potential expanses of naked flesh.
Program settings allow users to chose how tightly they want images scanned. A program to scan written content appears less sensitive, with a string of explicit words typed into a word document triggering no response, although some users have complained in online forums of shut-downs similar to those of Web browsers.
But it could also potentially leave security officials a track of computer use by a suspected dissident, or be a gift to fraudsters hunting online bank details and private information. Researchers in the U. Western governments and trade groups have also asked China to reconsider, based on concerns ranging from cyber-security and performance of the software to Internet freedoms. Internet News Updated.
