The internet nanny is cute, until she confiscates your computer ...

... and hauls you away and locks you up for a couple of years on trumped up charges relating to national security leaking national secrets -- and then you realize she's a hard ass. Inspired by the hideous and tacky mascots of the Beijing Olympics, the Shenzhen police devised a way of making their new internet police force (which started work on January 1 of this year) seem more cute and acceptable to the masses -- using cartoon mascots of their own. One is named Jing Jing (the male), and the other Cha Cha (the female). 'Jing' and 'cha' are the characters that comprise the word for 'police' in Chinese. Shanghaiist is sure that some of you readers are no doubt Westerners that just don't get China and Chinese values, which is why the po-lice have to spell it out for you:

网上的各种行为同样有网络警察维护“社会秩序”，网站、论坛等都是网络公共场所，网民要注意自己的言行。

This basically states that websites, including BBSs, discussion groups (and most definitely blogs) are public places, and so internet denizens must likewise watch what they say and do. Thus the two cartoon figures will appear on various Shenzhen sites from now on. Apparently, you can click on either one and then be brought to a page (here or here) where you can talk live with real cops. One of the interesting things about these cartoon cops is that people have expressed the feeling that Jing Jing and Cha Cha look just too darn cute, and that no internet bad boys are going to be thinking about what they gonna do when these cartoon cops come for you. To learn more, read an English report here. There is something we don't get, though: Why is it that Cha Cha has those marks under her doe eyes that indicate she's a she, while neither she nor Jing Jing even has a f*cking nose? Anyway, we'd definitely pay more attention to her if she looked like, say, Jessica Rabbit -- but we digress. You won't find these two at your local donut shop -- they're hard at work on many sites, like on the right side of this webpage. Click on the icon and it'll take you to yet another page where you can then go to the links we gave above where you can talk with real coppers. We've been unsuccessful at actually getting someone thus far. It could be that there are just too many people out there dying to talk to an internet cop about T1betan independence, official corruption, human rights violations, heroin and gay sex.

Related:
China: Web censorship gives US pause for thought (silicon.com)
How China Controls the Internet (Business Week)