An age-screening mechanism should be devised to ensure minors do not purchase adult merchandise on shopping Web sites, a non-governmental organization (NGO) said yesterday.
During a public hearing hosted by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Sue-ying (黃淑英), participants addressed measures to prevent minors from buying adult products such as pornography from online stores like Yahoo and PChome.
Lee Li-feng (李麗芬), secretary-general of the Taiwanese branch of the End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT), said that almost all online stores suffer from a lack of appropriate age-screening mechanisms.
This dearth has resulted in minors, who cannot access adult products in physical stores, turning to online shopping, she said.
Using the name, date of birth and ID number of a nine-year-old boy, ECPAT-Taiwan was able to place orders for adult products on four of the five major local Internet stores, she said.
"If a nine-year-old boy attempts to buy a Playboy magazine in a real bookstore, I am sure no one will sell it to him," Lee said.
"But there are no mechanisms on the Web sites to determine whether the buyer is a minor or not," Lee said.
Using the ECPAT-Taiwan experiment -- which was conducted in the past two months -- as an example, Lee said that all online stores should restrict the means of payment to credit cards when the product being purchased is intended for adult consumption only, as credit-card holders must be at least 20 years of age.
"We must keep in mind, however, that no matter what blocking methods are used, they are never 100 percent effective," said Kao Yu-chuan (
Kao said introducing an age-screening mechanism was obviously necessary, but the new mechanism should not influence the normal flow of Internet transactions, as online business is important for the nation's economic prosperity.
TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT: A US Air Force KC-135 tanker came less than 1,000 feet of an EVA plane and was warned off by a Taipei air traffic controller, a report said A US aerial refueling aircraft came very close to an EVA Airways jet in the airspace over southern Taiwan, a military aviation news Web site said. A report published by Alert 5 on Tuesday said that automatic dependent surveillance–broadcast (ADS-B) data captured by planfinder.net on Wednesday last week showed a US Air Force KC-135 tanker “coming less than 1,000 feet [305m] vertically with EVA Air flight BR225 as both aircraft crossed path south of Taiwan” that morning. The report included an audio recording of a female controller from the Taipei air traffic control center telling the unidentified aircraft that it was
A US aircraft carrier group led by the USS Theodore Roosevelt has entered the South China Sea to promote “freedom of the seas,” the US military said yesterday, as tensions between China and Taiwan raise concerns in Washington. US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement that the strike group entered the South China Sea on Saturday, the same day Taiwan reported a large incursion of Chinese bombers and fighter jets into its air defense identification zone near the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島). The US military said the carrier strike group was in the South China Sea, a large part of which
STRATEGIC MISTAKE: Beijing’s deployment of aircraft near Taiwan proves the ‘China threat theory’ that sees it attempting to destabilize the region, an analyst said China on Saturday and yesterday sent a record number of military aircraft into the nation’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), in what analysts said was an attempt to flex its military might for US President Joe Biden. Thirteen Chinese warplanes flew into Taiwan’s southwestern ADIZ on Saturday and 15 entered yesterday, the highest number observed in a single day this year, the Ministry of National Defense said. On Saturday, eight Xian H-6K bombers, four Shenyang J-16 fighters and a Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft, entered the ADIZ, while yesterday there were two Y-8s, two Su-30s, four J-16s, six J-10 fighters and a Y-8 reconnaissance
DISPOSING MYTHS: A new constitution would better reflect reality, as the current one was drafted ‘in and for China,’ without the consent of Taiwanese, advocates said Independence advocates yesterday launched the Taiwan New Constitution Alliance to promote drafting a new, localized constitution. “This is a historic moment for Taiwan. Drafting a new constitution is the most important task Taiwanese face,” veteran independence advocate Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏) said at the inaugural event in Taipei. “Although the Democratic Progressive Party is in power, its authority is based on the Republic of China [ROC] Constitution, which has no connection to Taiwan,” said the 95-year-old Koo, a former presidential adviser. “The historic task of drafting a new constitution depends on efforts by all Taiwanese,” Koo said. “A constitution for a sovereign, independent Taiwan
RSS