In Korea, if you attempt to reach ‘certain sites’ deemed to be harmful by the government, you’ll most likely be greeted with the above message that informs you the page has been blocked in Korea courtesy of the Korea Communications Standards Commission.

While pornography itself is technically banned in Korea, Korea has also been blocking – or at least attempting to block – online pornography for some time, both foreign and domestic. Recently, a coalition of civic groups have taken it upon themselves to individually monitor the Internet for porn sites – and have now entered into an alliance with the government. If these groups get their way, you may lose your internet or phone service if they catch you looking at porn on them (not that that’s stopped people from looking at mobile porn in busy places before).

From Nate:

Rolling Up Their Sleeves, Citizens Attempt to Weed Out Internet Pornography

Citizens concerned about youths’ minds after watching pornography on websites and their smartphones have vowed to carry on the fight against pornography.

As a measure of blocking pornography, which was announced by the government in March, the Ministry of Public Administration And Security (headed by Minister Maeng Hyung-gyu) announced on the 19th that they are taking countermeasures to combat pornography viewing by teens in collaboration with 11 citizens’ groups that monitor teen’s online activity deemed to be harmful. The government and these groups formally declared a ‘cyber-keeper’ alliance.

Groups on board with this effort are the Citizens’ Alliance For A Sound Media, the Parent Information Observers, Infollution Zero, the Sex Education Center of Korea, the Young Women’s Christian Association, the Federation of Youth Protection, the Korea Cyber Inspectors Group, the Paramita Youth Organization, the Korean Youth Board of Trustees, Citizens for Children’s Health, and the Women’s Youth Media Union, totaling over 400 people.

According to the The Ministry of Public Administration and Security, 1 in 3 youths view pornography online and are exposed to it for the first time during their first year of middle school, constituting a serious problem.

Meanwhile, some civic groups who are actively engaged in individually monitoring pornography have joined forces to promote this movement; they are participating in this movement with the Ministry of Public Administration and Security because they were limited by the amount of follow-up measures they could pursue and the effectiveness [or lack thereof] of individual monitoring.

These 400 people will be monitoring websites and smartphones for pornographic images, videos and advertisements. Illegal or otherwise ‘harmful’ information will be reported to the cyber police division or the Korea Communications Commission and service providers, who will then be requested to delete the offender’s service plan. This collected information will be regularly announced by the monitors, who hope this will force the website operator to try and make their websites ‘cleaner’ or more [morally] sound.

An officer for the Ministry of Public Administration and Security said, “We are hopeful for the future of our youth, so in order to prevent the contamination of their minds, maintaining this monitoring effort is important – I appeal to all citizens to join us in this effort to block online pornography.”

Comments from Nate:

김성욱:

Well, if you want to do something about [porn], you could start by taking a look at the ads on this [Nate] page, like: ‘Do you want to learn a ‘secret method’ that will drive your husband in his 40s to become sexually excited in just 5 minutes??’ That’s how teens could really get suckered in, by clicking on an otherwise innocent article and being exposed to these kinds of images.

현정훈:

This [pornography] is a difficult crime to prevent…why don’t you focus on stopping things like voice phishing or violent crime instead!!!!

김균회:

Youths shouldn’t be watching pornography, but…it is an essential form of media for some single adults. If there was no porn in our country, what would these people have to live for?

김금자:

What if you were born a lewd person?

정성훈:

[Porn] is not going to go away, so I’m not worried ke ke.

이희성:

It’s not just youths watching it…what’s wrong with porn?

김유진:

Next thing you know, these people will be pushing for a national ban on sex.

이견철:

Um, has anyone looked at the banners on news sites? Are they not advertising pornography as well?

최태훈:

Why can’t adults watch it ;;; Is this even legal?

정원진:

[Quoting the government official in the article] “We appeal to all citizens to join us in this movement to wipe the Internet clean of pornography”…jeez…I hate people like this.

이준영:

What percentage of those organizations is made up of men…?

남기호:

Ke ke ke ke …even if you manage to prevent [porn], do you think it will stop? Ke ke ke ke

홍상우:

This is going to set us back as a country. Has no one thought that if sexual education is not taught properly in school, the amount of sexual assaults will go up? If you want to block porn, block porn after properly teaching teens sex ed!

배경근:

Catch the companies distributing peer to peer (P2P) files instead.

양정기:

If you block adults from [viewing porn] there will be a rise in the amount of sexual predators and criminals.

이학준:

Ke ke ke …Don’t you think that would just prevent domestic viewing of porn? There are still torrents…you would have to block the entire global network of the Internet to prevent it, if that’s even possible…Stop speaking bullshit and attend to other, more important matters.

김영구:

I think if you outlaw porn, more sexual offenses will be committed.

유지훈:

Guys will just go abroad for it then…especially to Japan.

Other netizens were a little more simple and direct with their feelings:

장훈:

No way!!!!

이상환: