China targets Internet sites

BEIJING, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- China is renewing its crackdown on Internet content, targeting sites that fail to filter questionable content, officials said.

TechNewsWorld.com reported Monday that Beijing is calling out 19 Internet companies, including Google and Baidu, threatening to take legal action.

Baidu and Google both offer blogging services that the government said had been used to distribute obscene content, TechNewsWorld reported.

"For those Web sites that repeatedly ignore warnings, we will publicize a few, punish a few and even close down a few," the Chinese Information Office said.

The agency said the online companies allow "low-class, crude and even vulgar contents, which severely corrupted the public mentality."

Government officials said they are responding to parents' concerns.

"The vulgar trend has deeply harmed the mental and physical health of the young generation," officials said. "Many parents are calling out: 'Save our children'. They want the government to take drastic action."

China has a ban on a number of foreign Web sites, including the BBC's Chinese language news site. The banned sites were temporarily unblocked during the August Summer Olympics in Beijing after complaints of censorship from journalists.