An AP story on a new initiative by the police in Beijing to put a visible police presence on the screens of Chinese citizens. Starting Sept. 1, little animated cop figures will wander across the displays of users of a baker's dozen of Chinese Web portals. The program is set to expand by year's end to all sites "registered with Beijing servers," according to the report. The point of the anime-like figures seems to be to remind citizens that their Web usage is being monitored, not to actually implement any further monitoring themselves.
In this image released Tuesday Aug. 28, 2007 by the Beijing Public Security Bureau, shown is cartoon figures of 'virtual police'. Police in Beijing said Tuesday they will soon begin patrolling the web using the animated beat cops that pop up on a user's browser and walk, bike or drive across the screen warning them to stay away from illegal Internet content. (AP Photo/Beijing Public Security Bureau, HO)
