Online porn still popular despite crackdown
Print Edition
WHEN Beijing graduate student Xiao Ying, 24, found his Qvodplayer video software had failed to work, it was because the authorities were cleaning up the Internet — and his private life.
Qvodplayer was banned because it had provided access to adult videos.
Two months after raids on brothels and karaoke hostess bars in the southern city of Dongguan, a crackdown on pornography was launched. This time, the battlefield is the Internet.
The government’s “Cleaning the Web 2014” campaign will run until November and websites, search engines, mobile application stores, Internet TV, USB sticks, and set-top boxes will all be monitored.
All online texts, pictures, videos and advertisements with pornographic content will also be deleted, and websites will be shut down or lose their licenses if they produce or spread illicit content.
To date, more than 100 sites have been closed and thousands of social media accounts have been suspended.
Without Qvodplayer, Xiao said he downloads feeds through software that bypasses web monitoring.
“I’m single now and I often download adult videos. After all, sex is a basic human need,” he said.
With the campaign in full swing, Xiao and other young Chinese are becoming more open to talking about sex.
Visitors to the Zhihu forum regularly pose questions such as: “Can a porn actress live an ordinary life when she stops acting?” and “What do women think of men who watch adult videos?”
Several women said they think it’s natural for men to enjoy porn, while others admitted to watching it themselves.
“I think that men who never watch pornography are psychologically or physically ill,” said female poster Li Yuan.
Another woman, Dai Jiaobu, said: “The first time I watched, I was driven by curiosity. Then I felt it was a little disgusting. But now I often enjoy it with my boyfriend.”
She said she even once found her father watching adult videos at home.
“It was embarrassing, but it didn’t affect my love for him. I was just surprised that a 60-year-old man still needs it.”
But an unnamed official at the State Internet Information Office defended the campaign.
“Disseminating pornographic content online severely harms the physical and mental health of minors, and seriously corrupts the social ethos.”
According to a proposal published on Sina Weibo by researchers Dr Chen Yaya and Fang Gang, the government’s efforts to crackdown on online porn have been costly but achieved little.
“The campaign can reduce exposure to pornography, but in the long run the effect is minimal,” they said, adding that it might also be in conflict with the right to freedom of expression.
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