Deputy Prime Minister Paiboon Wattanasiritham announced that his last mission during his two remaining months in office would only concern with finding new and more effective steps to stop the exploitation of children on the internet.
His mission includes the developing of a ratings system for computer games and popular websites, putting restrictions on internet cafes, and protecting children's personal information on the internet.
Mr Paiboon, also social development and human security minister, said he has appointed a committee, which would exclusively deal with protecting children's personal online information, chaired by acting permanent-secretary for Social Development and Human Security Charnyut Kosirinont.
The committee would come up with new regulations to ban internet service providers and website operators from presenting children's personal information such as age, photo, contact address, telephone number, and email address on the webs.
''We've found that the disclosure of such information on children in the cyber world is the reason why child exploitation is up so sharply,'' said Mr Paiboon. He cited an Abac Poll survey which found that 70% of the children who chat online with strangers have ended up dating them, and one in every 10 even had sex with the stranger they knew online.
Dr Krisada Rueng-areerat, a member of the Committee for Safe and Creative Media, said the measure on personal data protection is to caution website operators to be more careful when posting information on the internet.
''The posted information, such as a child's age, photo and contact address is what the criminals are looking for to get to them,'' said Dr Krisada. The panel is working on regulations to restrict that kind of online information. However, more discussion is needed to determine the children's protection age.
The regulation is likely to be drawn up by the end of November.
A ratings system for registered computer games and popular websites would be similar to the TV programmes for children. It would assess the contents in three facets _ violence, sex and language.
A ratings system for registered computer games and popular websites would be similar to the TV programmes for children. It would assess the contents in three facets _ violence, sex and language.
National statistics show that around six million Thai youths are using the internet today, and the number of newcomers to computer games is going up by 2,500 each month. According to Dr Krisada, the ratings system could be categorised into 5-6 levels, depending on the age of children. The ratings process is expected to be completed in December. But internet cafe{aac}s would stay under the supervision of the Culture Ministry.
Ladda Tangsupachai, director of the Culture Watch Centre, said the ministry would give another 1-2 months to internet cafe{aac} owners operating illegally to apply for a licence from the Culture Ministry before the launch of a crackdown. ''After the deadline, those operating without a licence would face legal punishment and also ordered to close the cafes,'' said Ms Ladda. Besides the licensing measure, the government will soon launch a White Internet Cafe{aac} campaign to endorse the internet shops that meet the required standards, such as being free of alcohol and limiting service hours to child customers. The white internet cafes would be given a sticker to distinguish themselves from the others, along with incentive packages such as special software programmes at cheaper prices.
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