By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter

Regulators are moving to tighten censorship control on the Internet, with video-on-demand (VOD) movies and user-generated video clips now to be taken to the clipping room.

The Korea Communications Standards Commission, which reviews content for television and radio, announced plans Tuesday to extend its monitoring powers over the Web.

The transition was inevitable, the commission said, considering the blurring boundaries between telecommunications operators and television stations which now find themselves competing for the same market in Internet protocol television (IPTV).

Aside from retransmitted terrestrial television programs, most IPTV content had remained elusive to censorship, but the commission is now discussing appropriate guidelines to control content in VOD, data broadcasting and other interactive features of broadband television.

A bigger challenge will be introducing censorship for user-generated content in video clips, Web streaming, online storage services and peer-to-peer (P2P) exchanges, which constantly move data on a real-time basis.

The commission also plans to review video content in mobile data services, with more and more wireless subscribers using data-enabled handsets, officials said.

``We are planning to hold a series of public hearings, and also study the precedents in other countries over reviewing the content of convergence services,'' said a commission official.

``The idea is to provide a system to restrict non-terrestrial IPTV content, such as VOD and data broadcasting, as well as any type of video data moved on the Internet,'' he said.

The commission is currently conducting a survey on the content provided by IPTV, P2P services, online storage systems and mobile data services and their accessibility to consumers. VOD, data broadcasting and user-generated content will also be put under the microscope.

It remains to be seen whether the commission will effectively manage its new responsibilities, when critics are already questioning the commission's ability to control content on late-night and cable television.

The commission has just 350 contract workers working three to four hours a day monitoring national television channels, cable television channels, radio, and mobile digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) content nationwide, which all adds up to 250 channels. The commission has just 15 regular employees.

It is also planning to take a harder look at regional television and radio stations and their advertisements. The filtering of foreign Internet sites, providing sexual content, gambling services, pro-North Korean and other illegal content, will also be strengthened.

thkim@koreatimes.co.kr