BANGKOK, March 29 (UPI) -- Thailand's military-backed government has set up a national panel it says is needed to control Web sites and other media outlets from exploiting the young.
Deputy Prime Minister Paiboon Wattanasiritham, who will chair the panel, which will also overesee television, film and magazines, said its purpose will be to ensure a "safe and creative media," the Bangkok Post reported Thursday. The committee will be made of representatives from government ministries as well as operators of search engine Web sites such as Google, MSN, and Truehits, the report said.
Paiboon said one of the immediate tasks is to try to stop Web sites hosting advertisements which seek to lure teenagers. He said there are some 500,000 Web pages in Thailand that are sexually seductive, and 250 Web sites showing nude video clips of teenagers.
Separately, the Post reported that the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission has opened a new Web page to host a Thai NGO-led petition against censorship of the Internet in Thailand. The petition is urging an end to what it calls illegal and unmonitored censorship of Web sites in Thailand.
