China's state television yesterday defended a government mandate that every personal computer sold in the country should carry internet filtering software.

Although the government says the software is aimed at blocking violence and pornography, users who have tried it say that it also blocks access to discussions about homosexuality, democratic reform and religious freedom.

Responding to worldwide condemnation of the move, state television claimed that the filtering was endorsed by a “vast number” of parents and experts.

Communist authorities rarely publicly justify their tight internet controls on China’s 250 million web surfers and often block content challenging their rule. But in a similar report, the official party newspaper the Guangming Daily called the software a breakthrough in the drive for a “civilized Internet”.

The mandate requires PC makers to install the Green Dam-Youth Escort software on all hard drives or bundle it on a compact disc with each unit sold starting next month. PC firms also will have to report each shipment of the software, which is made by a Chinese developer contracted by the government.

Some say the move could create a monopoly for the developer, which could benefit greatly as China’s total PC shipments are expected to climb by 3 per cent this year to more than 42 million units, according to the research firm Gartner.

Professors at Shue Yan University in Hong Kong and academics at the China Youth University for Political Sciences in Beijing say they plan to submit a letter to the State Council complaining about the mandate's “lack of scientific rationality”.

Global computer industry experts question the security of PCs carrying Green Dam. The Computer & Communications Industry Association in Washington DC, says the software could be used to censor Web surfing beyond the stated targets of pornography and violence.

The software could block sites based on keywords rather than specific web addresses, though its developer has said that users could unblock any site or uninstall the software.

Chen Ying, an official at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, went on CCTV (China Central Television) to deny that the software included spyware. “If there is sexual, violent or other sorts of content unsuitable for young people, then that content will be blocked,” he said.

One Chinese web surfer, however, announced to a popular blog that after uninstalling the software’s trial version, three undeletable files remained on her hard drive. “Please do not (let it) bite you. Please do not download the trial.” she wrote.

The software has prompted derision among China’s internet users, many of whom have learnt to evade government controls. Some wonder at its timing in a politically sensitive year for Beijing, where leaders last week tried hard to suppress discussion of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Li Fangping, a human rights lawyer, has asked the ministry to allow hearings on the legality of the mandate, and gay advocacy and Aids awareness groups demanded withdrawal of the software, claiming that it could block access to their websites.

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