Who ever said police states need to be all secret-y and dark? Not Beijing! Starting Saturday, cute anime cops will pop up on the user’s screen every half hour and walk, bike or drive around giving friendly authoritarian reminders to stay away from illegal Internet content.

The wide-eyed male and female cartoon officers, designed for the Beijing ministry by Sohu, will offer a text warning to surfers to abide by the law and tips on Internet security as they move across the screen.

“We will continue to promote new images of the virtual police and update our Internet security tips in an effort to make the image of the virtual police more user friendly and more in tune with how web surfers use the Internet,” the Beijing ministry stated.

China is on track to surpass the United States as the largest online population in two years. Currently they have the world’s second-largest population of Internet users, with 137 million people online. China polices the Internet for material and content that the ruling Communist Party does not like and blocks many sites coming in from other countries. Despite the monitoring, nudity, profanity, illegal gambling and pirated music, books and film are readily available on Chinese servers.

The animated police appear designed to startle Web surfers and remind them that their web activity is being watched. However, the statement did not say whether there were plans to expand the jurisdiction of the virtual cops.

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Entry was posted on Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 at 11:03 am under Piracy, Security.

Read more entries by Ema Kwiatkowski.
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