POLICE in Guangdong have ordered Internet users to register with the local computer security and supervision departments. The requirement came after the enforcement of national regulations earlier this month to tighten controls on dissemination of 'harmful information'. The semi-official Hong Kong China News Agency reported yesterday that Guangdong had several thousand Internet users. They were required to register with the relevant police units within 30 days after being linked with computer networks, the report said. Both individual and institutional users acquiring information outside China through computer networks would have to register, it said. China is trying to control the information flow through the Internet as users can receive a number of 'unhealthy and harmful', as well as pornographic, materials on-line. To ban transmission of state secrets, information harmful to state security and pornography, premier Li Peng signed an edict on Internet policy on February 1. Although overseas news media have interpreted the policy as a government drive to tighten control over information, local firms and officials have hailed it for formally legalising China's international computer links.
