North Korean media warns of ‘unhealthy ideas’ spread by mobile phones
Both legal and illicit communications devices proliferate in the isolated country
North Korea’s main state newspaper warned on Tuesday of the “negative impact” from mobile-phone use around the world, as both legal and illicit communications devices proliferate in the isolated country. Rodong Sinmun newspaper published an article citing a ban on phones in classrooms in France and reports of technology-enabled cheating in India and argued that mobile devices were spreading “decadent and reactionary ideological culture”. “Erotic notices, fictions and videos, as well as violent electronic games, are spreading through the mobile phones without limits,” the newspaper wrote. “This means that mobile phones are used as tools to instil unhealthy ideas in minors.” North Korea’s authoritarian government maintains a tight grip on communications, with almost no ordinary citizens allowed to connect by phone or internet to the outside world. Still, since 2008, the government has rolled out tightly controlled cell networks for communication within the country, with about 3-millio...
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