China mobile users face jail for sexy texts
BEIJING (AFP) - - Mobile phone users in central China
could face jail for sending unwanted erotic text messages while in
the north, one local Communist Party branch has held 480 meetings
on the problem in the past month.
Henan province has announced that firing off just one such
message could see the sender slapped in detention for up to five
days, the China Daily reported on Tuesday.
Three messages could result in 10 days behind bars and a fine of
500 yuan (73 dollars), the English-language newspaper reported.
The province's legal office announced the new penalties to
address the growing problem of unwanted and inappropriate text
messages in a country with more than 600 million mobile phone
users, it said.
"I'm totally for the rules. It's uncomfortable to get dirty text
messages from male friends and even more gross when they are from
strangers," Zhang Kai, 26, told the daily.
"But I'll take them as jokes and reply if they are from my
female friends," said Zhang, whose gender was not given.
Henan is not the first province to tackle the problem. Liaoning
in the northeast passed a regulation earlier this year that such
messages could be part of a sexual harassment charge, the paper
said.
In a similar move, Communist Party members in Shenze county, in
Hebei province, will be punished for sending text messages with
"inappropriate" content, the People's Daily said.
"Obscene information not only harms the people's soul but harms
the people's morality as well," it quoted the party rule as
saying.
Offenders would face an unspecified punishment and the worst
ones would be named and shamed in the media.
Since July 10, Shenze party officials have held 480 meetings to
discuss the harmful effects of obscene messages, a degree of
dedication that has been questioned by the public, the People's
Daily said.
"It's not necessary to hold 480 meetings on this. This is an
enormous waste of administrative resources," an Internet user named
Han Haoyue was quoted as saying.
