DailyTech - China to Review All Song Lyrics for 'Inappropriate' Content

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Internet China to Review All Song Lyrics for 'Inappropriate' Content
Michael Barkoviak - September 14, 2009 7:30 AM

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28 comment(s) - last by mindless1.. on Sep 17 at 12:49 AM

Crackdown on music that isn't appropriate for the internet culture

The Chinese Ministry of Culture plans to remove song lyrics from Chinese websites that contain vulgar, violent and similar type of content. Beginning December 31, all music that will be posted online or sold must be approved by the Ministry of Culture before being offered to retailers.

Songs in languages besides Chinese must be translated and reviewed before being made available. Undergoing such a large task will cause some strain on the ministry, but Chinese government officials thought about that already.

"Since our measures on regulating the online music market was announced last week, we have received positive responses from many online music providers," according to a ministry press statement. "In order to improve efficiency, we have already adopted an innovative reviewing approach to streamline the review process."

The Chinese government is well known for censoring material it deems inappropriate, even though some users find a way around the system. There are numerous restrictions on what content Chinese internet users are allowed to access -- and this is a step further to restrict the type of music they can listen to.

This BetaNews article highlights the ten types of content that are ruled as "internet culture" inappropriate, with guidelines pulled from the "Interim Provisions on Administration of Internet Culture, article XVII."

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We have censorship as well

By sh3rules on 9/14/2009 8:28:47 AM , Rating: 4

Does anyone remember Janet Jackson’s boob? In Europe nobody would worry about it much, but over here women are not allowed to show their dirty, offensive, immoral and sinful genitals. We must protect America!

RE: We have censorship as well

By HotFoot on 9/14/2009 8:36:31 AM , Rating: 2

Yep. It's all a grey area. It's okay to show depictions of horrific violence, but nakedness or sexual content in North America is not okay. *shrug* It's not like the point hasn't been raised before.

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RE: We have censorship as well

By CollegeTechGuy on 9/14/2009 8:44:19 AM , Rating: 1

I do not disagree that the US also has censorship. However, it is not nearly on the scale as what China has. They have "The Great Firewall of China" blocking millions of websites. This new music filtering is just another thing to control the public. The Chinese government is setting up their own demise, as eventually the 3 billion people will revolt and watch their porn...

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RE: We have censorship as well

By mindless1 on 9/15/2009 3:36:06 AM , Rating: 2

Setting up their own demise? LOL, you really think the whole country is going to overthrow their government or do you think they'll just "speak out" without repercussions? China isn't the US, though in the US you don't always get to overthrow or cause trouble either, do anything significant enough to "set up the demise"... of a government.

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RE: We have censorship as well

By straycat74 on 9/14/09, Rating: -1

RE: We have censorship as well

By B3an on 9/14/2009 2:25:26 PM , Rating: 2

Thats a really stupid argument and i'm not surprised you're rated down.
In many European countries nudity is perfectly fine and not offensive. No one gave a sh*t about Janet Jacksons nipple. Yet do you see people being raped all over the place in Europe? No. Infact sexual crimes are less in most of these countries.
And so are violent crimes aswell for that matter.

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RE: We have censorship as well

By straycat74 on 9/14/09, Rating: -1

RE: We have censorship as well

By mindless1 on 9/15/2009 3:44:59 AM , Rating: 2

Depends on the age of the victim. Being beaten at an early age, but those you are supposed to trust to protect you, will scar a child early on and taint all their life experiences from that point onward.

Sexual assault, depends on how old. Young adults have far better coping skills than children but ultimately the problem isn't "sex", it's fear which is the same with either even though your comparison is clearly inappropriate as we aren't contrasting sexual assult on tv, not even sex, just the human body not being covered up.

Children are aware of sex too, and have to be taught about it or learn for themselves one way or the other.

I dare say you have no idea if you think merely being groped has longer lasting or more significant effects than being beaten. Heck, the only reason someone would not have retribution from being groped is fear of being physically attacked. Same with sexual assault in general, the victim is subdued because they don't want to be hurt even worse than being raped, or else they'd never just stand there and let it happen.... speaking generally, there are always exceptions.

One final difference- On TV violence leads to killing. Do you not accept that remaining alive but raped, is better than dead in most cases? Plus there is one factor in favor of the child when it comes to sexual assault, that we lock away such scum for a long time and monitor them. Those who simply beat a child? Not as much.

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RE: We have censorship as well

By straycat74 on 9/15/2009 9:21:06 AM , Rating: 1

OK. sex and violence are equal. So horror movie night with the family can now be interchangeable with a porno night. Thank you for the help in clearing up that moral dilemma for me.

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RE: We have censorship as well

By mindless1 on 9/15/2009 10:04:31 PM , Rating: 2

Not quite, because the pron has very graphic.

Do you think it is appropriate to take the family to a violent film AS graphic? If the killer takes out the organs, tastes them all, you get close up shots and lots of fake emotion?

The answer is YES, sex is less destructive than violence. Certainly there are bad movies with sex just as there are bad VIOLENT movies, remember it's the violence not the OMGWTF soft horror you'd have to compare against.

Let me put it another way, which is more harmful to a child, overhearing their parents getting busy in bed, or overhearing their parents beating each other?

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RE: We have censorship as well

By AstroGuardian on 9/16/2009 3:59:48 AM , Rating: 2

Overhearing their parents beating each other. You cant teach a child that beating and violence is normal but you can teach it that sex is normal but can sometimes be risky and dangerous for the inexperienced.

That was what you wanted to hear?

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RE: We have censorship as well

By mindless1 on 9/17/2009 12:49:10 AM , Rating: 1

Thank you. Sex is a normal, healthy act, once one is old enough and responsible enough to accept the consequences, the real reason/chance of a child resulting.

Exposing someone too young to have that responsibility is not in any way forcing or implying they should have sex. Absolutely not! It is about education, information, helping them mature and make good decisions.

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RE: We have censorship as well

By MrTeal on 9/14/2009 10:20:36 AM , Rating: 5

Have you seen Janet Jackson lately? Sometimes people have to be protected from permanent mental trauma.

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RE: We have censorship as well

By Motoman on 9/14/2009 11:03:34 AM , Rating: 5

...breasts aren't genitals.

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RE: We have censorship as well

By The0ne on 9/14/2009 1:02:22 PM , Rating: 2

You caught that too eh? Was pretty funny to read.

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RE: We have censorship as well

By HoundRogerson on 9/14/2009 2:18:34 PM , Rating: 2

Except in New York. Young or old, large or small, women can let the girls fly free in the Big Apple.

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Morons

By Rebel44 on 9/14/2009 8:09:06 AM , Rating: 4

Morons

RE: Morons

By Larrymon2000 on 9/14/2009 9:16:00 AM , Rating: 3

It's a big PR stunt. The PRC knows it can't pull off something this massive; that much is clear. With the amount of pirated music, it's just another pipe dream. At least the WWW runs through controlled lines. You can't stop music channels from running through all genres and artists. I've been in Shanghai where there are shops hidden away in plazas that carry row up on row of bootlegged western CDs.

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RE: Morons

By Larrymon2000 on 9/14/2009 9:16:48 AM , Rating: 2

Also, calling 1.3 billion people 'morons' might not be the smartest thing to say.

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RE: Morons

By myhipsi on 9/14/2009 9:36:35 AM , Rating: 5

I don't think he's refering to the people of China, it's the government he's refering to. Two seperate things, considering the Chinese people aren't able to choose their government.

When will the communist governments of the world figure out that it's only a matter of time before they're out of a job? You can't stop the flow of information in the modern world, no matter how hard you try.

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RE: Morons

By mindless1 on 9/15/2009 3:50:25 AM , Rating: 2

"Government" is never "out of a job". You really think in any short span of time they won't be communist anymore? China is not a young country, they don't have a large continent to move to in order to get away from it all like American settlers did.

They really can stop the flow of information to a significant extent, because it doesn't have to be a 100% blockage in every hypothetical way, just enough to keep the masses unable to easily access it. Notice similar is true everywhere, do you have unrestricted access to all the gory details of building nuclear bombs? Do you know all your neighbor's credit card numbers? These things are information that you don't have because others take measures to prevent it, like a government now demonstrates it is willing to do once again.

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RE: Morons

By FaaR on 9/15/2009 12:16:22 PM , Rating: 2

China isn't a communist country, hasn't been for decades. Arguably it never actually ever was in the first place, but that's a different subject of debate.

No, china today is a market economic dictatorship, regardless of what you may hear elsewhere. It's not even a very socialist country anymore, much of the entitlement programs that existed in the past are now also gone (public health care and whatnot). Today, money is what counts in china, and if you don't have it then you're not getting much else either.

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RE: Morons

By AstroGuardian on 9/16/2009 4:02:58 AM , Rating: 2

Why do you think communists should run out of job? Think about how big a cums capitalists are.

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At least they have Slayer

By ixelion on 9/14/2009 7:47:53 AM , Rating: 2

At least they can still listen to Slayer, it contains anti-religious lyrics after all.

RE: At least they have Slayer

By StraightCashHomey on 9/14/2009 8:08:37 AM , Rating: 2

They sing about all sorts of religious stuff. It's just not exactly what church-going folks would agree with.

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RE: At least they have Slayer

By marvdmartian on 9/14/2009 9:57:20 AM , Rating: 2

That's good, I guess.....since any other music, other than maybe cotton-candy pop music and opera music will contain some sort of lyrics that could be considered inappropriate by someone!

I imagine The Wiggles might be okay too! ;)

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