Young urban Chinese people have to share small apartments with their parents and have nowhere else to go but the public places to display affection. Now they are warned that they might be caught in Close-Circuit-Camera (CCTV) installed in various parts of the city and even worse, labeled as a criminal by the computers who monitor the footage.

According to latest reports, Beijing couples are being warned that ‘intimate acts of lovers may be initially categorized as criminal activities by the computers, which are programmed to be sensitive to violations of safe distances.’ Thanks god, they won’t be “shouting at you” as some CCTV camera (photo in the left) in London do.

But fortunately, the young lovers’ fate won’t be decided purely by some emotionless machine which doesn’t understand the concept of ‘love’. In such situations, police officers monitoring the cameras will look at the footage of the kissing people to decide if the situation really is dangerous. Which is both reassuring, and slightly creepy.

But there will be some warning for amorous couples, the Xinhua news agency said. Signs will go up next month in areas covered by the cameras, saying in Chinese and English ‘you are entering a camera-monitored zone.’ Which should kill any romance nicely.

There are currently networks monitored separately by the police, and transport, public utilities and maintenance departments and Beijing plans to unify the monitoring of camera before next year’s Summer Olympics.
News source