[JTND] Indstry Groups Express Concern for i-Mode Dating Sites Blocking

[Matatabi Report <editor@matatabi.com>]

Two industry groups representing cell-phone content companies submit a
petition to the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Post and
Telecommunications. The groups oppose the blocking of unofficial
i-mode sites by NTT DoCoMo. DoCoMo plans to add a new blocking option
to its popular i-mode web services to prevent minors from accessing
"Deai-kei Sites"(cell-phone dating sites). When the proposed blocking
is applied by parents, only i-mode official sites are accessible from
a handset. The official i-mode sites are those sites that are approved
by DoCoMo and DoCoMo collects the content fees directly from the
subscribers. The unofficial sites include not just adult-oriented
sites, but also those sites offered by the government agencies,schools
and non-profit organizations. The groups concern that the blocking
would have negative effects on the growth of content market and would
make the mobile web services less useful. According to DoCoMo, there
are over 60,000 non-official i-mode sites and it is impossible for the
company to block only Deai-kei sites using keywords or URLs as the
basis of filtering.

http://www.mainichi.co.jp/digital/netfile/index.html

[I oppose the blocking because this let DoCoMo dictate what sites
available for the i-mode phones. I hope the content industry can
self-regulate, but there are too many small site owners who don't
care. What i-mode made a success -easy entry- now became the
problem. Some kind of content filtering by the operator cannot be
avoided. Japanese euphemism such as "Deai-kei Sites" and "Enjyo-kosai"
("Deai" means meeting people and Enjyo-kosai means "aid relationship"
or paying for a date.). People know Deai-kei sites are used for
arranging Enjyo-kosai or prostitution. Let call them "prostitution
sites" in the media and make the users embarrassed.--Naoki]

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