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Chinese firm deluged with applications for e-smut appraising job

$32,400 a year to find the obscene online

A Chinese company has received 5,000 resumes and 300,000 emails expressing interest after it advertised for a "chief appraiser" of pornography.

Safety Alliance, a company looking to offer web filtering in the already-restricted Middle Kingdom internet, is recruiting five people to check for obscene or "harmful" content online, as well as a "Chief Pornography Identification Officer" at a salary of 200,000 yuan ($32,375), according to its advertisement on the Chinese social media site Sina Weibo.

"The position specializing in tackling online pornography is the most popular among applicants," Yang Jilong, the alliance's human resources chief, told China Daily. "We need a team leader, which is why we posted the ad."

Before you start polishing your resumes and firing off applications, this isn't just a job for the one-handed internet user who just happens to know a lot about pornography. The company is looking for proficiency in multiple languages, internet and obscenity case law, and personnel management.

While internet filtering isn’t uncommon around the world, the Chinese situation is complicated because there's no official definition of pornography. But the position will require someone who, in the words of former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, knows it when they see it.

Cai Yifan, a 23-year old applicant from Nanjing, Jiangsu province, told the paper that he'd applied for the job after seeing the advert, had taken an online test, but hadn't made the grade as it was all too hard for him.

"The questions covered many fields, such as translation, legal knowledge and psychology," he said. "I'm interested in the job, but my chances of success are very small, as the standards were too high." ®

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