By July 1, the Chinese government will require all PCs shipped and sold into its territories to include programs specifically developed to block access to websites that it has deemed harmful to China's youth and population. This move could give the communist administration unparalleled influence over how the Chinese access and surf the Information Superhighway.

The communist government—which has already forewarned worldwide PC makers of the stipulation but has yet to announce the move to the public—believes its effort is motivated by its desire to keep its youth from being corrupted by the destructive, detrimental, and degenerate content held within the electronic strands of the worldwide web.

The program's foremost target for censorship is pornography, says the chief developer of the application whose software development firm has connections to China's military and security ministry. At any rate, China has had an established history of repressing a wide variety of Internet material, so this current development is par for the course for the socialist regime.

This new prerequisite could compel computer manufacturers to choose between opening themselves to accusations of supporting censorship or refusing a government order in a profitable and major market. This is a lose-lose proposition for them wherein rebellious moral victories could ultimately end up becoming Pyrrhic ones and succumbing to government mandates could make them look like greedy enterprises that care more about the bottom line than principle.

The program doesn't need to be preinstalled onto each new PC. It may instead be included with the package via CD, which at least gives users a say on the matter. However, foreign industry officials who have inspected the program say that once it's installed, it ironically causes PCs to break down and make them susceptible to cyber attacks. The application also makes it hard for users to find out what content is being blocked, the officials add.

A Hewlett-Packard (HP) spokeswoman (who represents an enterprise that has the biggest computer share of any American vendor in China) states that the company is presently working alongside government officials and appraising the best approach to use with this sensitive issue. She insists that HP is just as focused on customer satisfaction as it is in meeting China's upcoming regulatory sanctions.

The censoring program's Chinese name is transliterated to "Green Dam-Youth Escort". The word "green" in this context refers to Internet surfing that's free of pornography and other prohibited material. According to an official who tested and inspected the software for a government agency, Green Dam will connect Chinese PCs to a frequently updated catalog of banned web addresses and then prevent these URLs from being accessed.

The Green Dam censorship program was made by Jinhui Computer System Engineering Co. with feedback from Beijing Dazheng Human Language Technology Academy Co.