South Korea: Google Agrees to Censorship Demands

Text of report in English by South Korean newspaper Choson Ilbo website on 17 May

Google has decided to introduce technology to filter harmful content for underage Korean users and require users of its Korean service to prove that they are old enough.

The Ministry of Information and Communication on Wednesday [16 May] said Google has discussed with the ministry measures to limit access to harmful content by Korean adolescent internet users and decided to take the protective measures. Called SafeSearch, the filter technology is currently being developed by the search giant itself, and is expected to be put in place from August this year.

Korean internet users under 19 can access only content that passes the filtering technology. And searchers must prove that they are old enough when search for pornography. The search giant also decided to block of the URL of porn websites at a similar level as Korean major search engines.

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