Female lawmakers serving on the legislature’s Transportation Committee yesterday asked the National Communications Commission (NCC) to review television commercials for online games that are alleged to treat women as objects and serve as a negative influence on young people.
On Wednesday the NCC said it would refer four advertisements for online games to its independent content review committee on suspicion that they violated regulations in the Satellite Radio and Television Act (衛星廣播電視法).
One of the advertisements features a woman named Shushu (舒舒) operating a jackhammer, with close-up shots on her jiggling breasts as she drills. The other ads are for an online mahjong game, in which characters utter sexually suggestive lines.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) asked the NCC yesterday why it continued to allow degrading advertisements to be aired. She also criticized the Chinese Professional Baseball League for asking Yaoyao (瑤瑤), a female actress in another online game commercial, to pitch the first ball at a game last Saturday. The actress is known for having large breasts and shouting the grammatically incorrect catchphrase “Shahenda” (殺很大), meaning “massive killing,” while riding a horse in a commercial.
KMT Legislator Yang Li-hung (楊麗環) and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator (DPP) Yeh Yi-ching (葉宜津) also expressed concern over the advertisements. Yang said that the advertisers may have exploited the bodies of teenagers and infringed the Children and Juveniles Welfare Act (兒童及少年福利法).
Yeh said the NCC has to take matters seriously and should penalize both the television channels and advertisers.
In response, Jason Ho (何吉森), the NCC’s communication content department director, said the Satellite Radio and Television Act can only punish television channels, not advertisers.
DPP Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) questioned the standards the NCC used to distinguish between a creative ad and pornography.
“Just like a Supreme Court justice in the US once said: ‘I know it when I see it,’” Peng answered.
“You know it when you see it?” Huang asked. “So it’s okay when [Yaoyao] rides a horse, but it’s not okay if [Shushu] operates a jackhammer?”
Shushu was quoted in a television interview yesterday saying that she thought the commercial was fun and interesting and did not think it treated women as objects.
The NCC’s plan to investigate the content of the commercials drew mixed reactions from the public.
Some said the NCC should also punish advertisers of underwear if it was wrong to bare women’s breasts, whereas others supported NCC’s decision.
KMT Legislator Daniel Hwang (黃義交) said the commercials featured “outgoing youngsters” and the the NCC should allow advertisers more freedom.
The company behind the ad featuring Shushu announced last night that it would be pulled today and shown again after revision.
Additional reporting by Flora Wang and staff writer
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
RSS