Code of Practice
Practice Statement on
Regulation of Obscene and Indecent Material
Revision 1.1 4-Sep-2003
Preamble
1. To protect young people and public morals, this Practice Statement recommends guidelines for Members of the Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association (“HKISPA”) to follow in their provision of services insofar as the regulation of obscene and indecent material transmitted on the Internet is concerned.
2. For the avoidance of doubt, this Practice Statement does not absolve any Member of the HKISPA from the relevant legislation (including the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance and the Telecommunication Ordinance) currently in force in Hong Kong, and its obligations under the terms of the Public Non-Exclusive Telecommunications Service License granted by the Telecommunications Authority.
3. This Practice Statement shall be reviewed as and when necessary.
Terminology
4. For the purpose of this Policy Statement,
“enforcement agencies” means government agencies responsible for the enforcement of the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance, namely the Customs and Excise Department, Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) and Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority (TELA);
“Member” means a Member of the Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association;
“URL” stands for “Uniform Resource Locator” which is the address of a file of content on the Internet;
“Web Page” means a file of content accessible on the World Wide Web by a single URL;
“World Wide Web” means the network of content accessible on the Internet using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (“http”).
Conduct
5. Members will take reasonable steps to prevent users of their services from placing on the Internet or transmitting using the Internet, material likely to be classifiable as Class III (obscene) under the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance (“COIAO”) (Chapter 390). A summary of main provisions of COIAO is at Appendix I.
6. Members will advise subscribers that access to the Internet by a person under the age of 18 years needs to be supervised by a person over the age of 18 years.
7. Members will inform their users that material likely to be classifiable as Class II (indecent) under the COIAO should not be published or made available to persons under the age of 18 years.
8. Members will advise local content providers and distributors that all material put up by them which are likely to be classifiable as Class II (indecent) under the COIAO should be accompanied by the following on-screen warning on the Web Page before the content can be viewed:
WARNING : THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS MATERIAL WHICH MAY OFFEND AND MAY NOT BE DISTRIBUTED, CIRCULATED, SOLD, HIRED, GIVEN, LENT, SHOWN, PLAYED OR PROJECTED TO A PERSON UNDER THE AGE OF 18 YEARS.
Further reading:
http://www.hkispa.org.hk/Obscene_e.htm
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