China, whose online population is growing ever larger by the month and is set to surpass that of the United States within two years, has a long history of internet censorship. The Chinese government has moved to block pro-democratic content and other sites deemed politically or socially unacceptable by the Communist Party quickly in the past. For this reason many sites from outwith the country are blocked and cannot be accessed.
The police officers serve as a caricature of the Internet Police Task Force, estimated to be over 30,000 people strong, which censors and monitors the population's internet usage. In the past, critical comments which break the multitude of Chinese internet regulations have been deleted within minutes of their appearance.
The cute-looking internet police will walk, or drive, across surfers' screens from September 1st on thirteen of China's top internet portals and are set to be rolled out to appear on every website that is registered with Beijing servers by the end of the year. Text will also be displayed with the cartoon bike, car or bobbies on the beat providing tips on safer internet surfing. If users feel like they need to report something to the internet police they can also click on the images of the animated law enforcers.
In a statement about the new image, the Beijing Public Security Ministry said: "We will continue to promote new images of the virtual police and update our internet security tips in an effort to make the image of the virtual police more user friendly and more in tune with how web surfers use the internet".
