Mobage town, a social network and gaming site for mobile phones, is now in deep crisis.
From December 10th, the Japanese government has requested mobiles phone companies to filter web content for minors. The filtering policy is very strict. It prohibits minors from accessing web sites in ‘communication’ criterion. ‘communication’ means all web sites with forum, chat, comment, or social network feature. So, Mobage falls into that criterion.
50% of Mobage users are minors. It will hurt DeNA, the operator of Mobage. Nomura securities, Japan’s leading stockbroker, downgraded DeNA’s rating. DeNA’s stock price fell 30 percent.
Nobuo Sakiyama, a social activist, criticized the fact that mobile phone companies are filtering web sites with gay and lesbian, political or religional topics.
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Shunichi Arai