Schools get rid of the controversial Chinese Internet filters

The schools in Beijing are beginning to quietly remove the filter Green Dam, which in July ordered the installation mandatory for all school computers, to the complaints of problems with the program.

Last month, China pulled back to their initial plan to pre-install this program that acts as a filter on the internet in all new computers sold in the country from 1 July, before the protests sparked national and international level.

But the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology held the order for schools to install the filter, which it said would block pornography and other unhealthy content.

However, critics say that will be used to spy on Internet users and to block pages that are politically sensitive.

However, some colleges have chosen not to install it.

"We will remove all programs Green Dam of computers at school because it has strong conflicts with the educational programs we need for normal work," said a notification on the school page 50 (www.bj50.com), dated September 1.

A technology director surnamed Wang confirmed Tuesday that the program has been removed from most computers.

"Severely influenced our normal work," he said, adding that it has proved to be incompatible with most software used for school administration.

"We have received many complaints from schools about the problems with the software," Reuters said an official surnamed Sun at the Education Commission of Chongwen District.

"It is a contradictory situation for us," said Sun, who said they are among the directives of central authorities to install the program and the complaints of the schools.

Minister of Industry and Information Technology, Li Yizhong, said in August that schools, Internet cafes and other public places should install the Green Dam, but ordinary users would not be required.

The program, developed by Jinhui Computer System Engineering, has been criticized by the technology industry for being poorly designed even for those who want to protect children. The program must be installed on each program, not on a central server, and can cause failures in other programs.