China keeping closer eye on phone text messages

Iria · Dec 6, 2005, 10:28 PM

BEIJING - China's government said Tuesday that it had stepped up the monitoring of short-text messages sent by the nation's 383 million cellphone users to prevent fraud, pornographers and other "unhealthy elements" from exploiting the technology.

The police found 107,000 illegal short messages and shut down 9,700 cell-phone accounts since the beginning of November, the vice minister of the Ministry of Public Security, Wu Heping, said at a briefing here that was broadcast on the Internet.

Banking scams accounted for 44 percent of the messages, followed by advertisements for illegal lotteries, prostitution or pornography services, and illicit requests for financial information, according to Wu. The remaining 26 percent related to "other crimes," the ministry said, without elaborating.

The ministry has upgraded its filtering system over the past few years to catch criminals, Wu said. China's government is also using the technology to control the spread of news and information, according to Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based group that campaigns for press freedom.

Cellphone subscribers in China sent 217.8 billion text messages last year, a 58.8 percent increase from 2003, according to the U.S.-based Mobile Data Association. China is the world's biggest cellphone market in terms of users.

China has 2,800 surveillance centers to monitor text message traffic, Reporters Without Borders said in a July 2004 report that cited a press release by Venus Info Tech, which is based in Beijing.
____________
Read More / Source: International Herald Tribune

Dec 6, 2005, 10:28 PM	#1
Iria DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 7,275 Rep Power: 89	China keeping closer eye on phone text messages BEIJING - China's government said Tuesday that it had stepped up the monitoring of short-text messages sent by the nation's 383 million cellphone users to prevent fraud, pornographers and other "unhealthy elements" from exploiting the technology. The police found 107,000 illegal short messages and shut down 9,700 cell-phone accounts since the beginning of November, the vice minister of the Ministry of Public Security, Wu Heping, said at a briefing here that was broadcast on the Internet. Banking scams accounted for 44 percent of the messages, followed by advertisements for illegal lotteries, prostitution or pornography services, and illicit requests for financial information, according to Wu. The remaining 26 percent related to "other crimes," the ministry said, without elaborating. The ministry has upgraded its filtering system over the past few years to catch criminals, Wu said. China's government is also using the technology to control the spread of news and information, according to Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based group that campaigns for press freedom. Cellphone subscribers in China sent 217.8 billion text messages last year, a 58.8 percent increase from 2003, according to the U.S.-based Mobile Data Association. China is the world's biggest cellphone market in terms of users. China has 2,800 surveillance centers to monitor text message traffic, Reporters Without Borders said in a July 2004 report that cited a press release by Venus Info Tech, which is based in Beijing. ____________ Read More / Source: International Herald Tribune