GUANGDONG authorities yesterday closed a company making and translating subtitles for seemingly innocent cartoons, which actually contain scenes of a violent and sexual nature.
Two offices of the Guangzhou Yinjun Trade Company were closed and all related videos were asked to be deleted, according to the office against pornographic and illegal publication in Guangdong.
The company apologized on its official Weibo account, China’s Twitter-like platform, saying: “We set the wrong example, to increase online video traffic by making videos that contained disturbing and inappropriate content not suitable for children.”
Guangdong police said the province had no other companies involved in making these harmful videos so far.
The latest move is a reaction to the controversial “Elsagate” scandal, a public furore surrounding inappropriate cartoons believed to be aimed at children. Elsa is the main character of the Disney animation “Frozen,” and is prevalent in many disturbing cartoons on online video website YouTube.
The action came after China launched a nationwide campaign Monday to crack down on harmful online cartoons after an online article went viral on the country’s social media.
The English article, which said, “A group of perverts are targeting kids on YouTube. I used to work for them,” was originally posted on social media website Reddit in November, stirring widespread concern among Chinese parents who read a Chinese translation of the article.
The matter was further complicated by the fact the story was originally posted on a section of Reddit called “nosleep,” a part of the website usually reserved for “original horror stories,” where it is explained that “suspension of disbelief is key.”
The article describes the author’s experience working in an unidentified animation firm that makes fake video clips of popular cartoon characters, such as Elsa, Spiderman and Peppa Pig, into scenes of violence, terrorism and sexuality to trick children into watching.
These animated videos, called “children’s evil classics” by Chinese media, have been uploaded onto major video portals in China.
The video uses tags to fall into “parent-child” categories and once a child plays several of the videos, more are automatically recommended. (Xinhua)