In China, even when you’re an elf, the authorities want to know who you are.
Under a “real name verification system” to crack down on internet usage – and prevent internet addiction among the young – Chinese police are to check the identity card numbers of all would-be players of internet games.
While it is unclear how rigorously the system will be enforced, Monday’s move highlights Beijing’s desire to more closely regulate the internet and reduce the potential for anonymity on a world wide web where, as a New Yorker cartoon famously put it, “nobody knows you are a dog”.[Full Text]