100 websites pledge healthy, positive content

One hundred websites and news portals pledged to create a healthy and positive cyber environment for minors here on Sunday. They called on all Internet media organizations to advocate the Chinese dream, which is characterized by national prosperity and rejuvenation as well as citizens living a happy life. Their calls also include setting up examples from which youth can learn, eliminating harmful information on the Internet and offering online services such as psychological counseling, legal assistance and poverty reduction. They announced the pledge amid an Internet-cleaning campaign jointly initiated by the State Internet Information Office, the Ministry of Education, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China and the All-China Women's Federation on Sept. 16. The campaign is targeted at creating a positive and healthy Internet culture for the good of youngsters. The 100 participating websites include such big names as people.com, xinhuanet.com, sina.com, sohu.com, baidu.com and qq.com. Zhao Guochen, the deputy editor of qq.com, believes stricter content management is imperative. Zhao said qq.com's editorial team blocked any content they deemed vulgar, particularly in qq's education and children's channels, and they impose rigorous supervision over such material. The clean-up campaign also came against the backdrop of an increasing young population hooked on the Internet. According to a recent survey conducted by the China Youth Association for Network Development, over 24 million young people are addicted to the Internet, and another 18 million show such an inclination. Li Zhanjiang, vice president of Beijing Anding Hospital, a hospital specializing in mental health, said it was predicted that harm caused by Internet addiction will be no less than addiction to heroin. Without effective interventions, web addiction will impede young people's healthy growth. Wang Jisheng, a psychology professor with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, argued that the Internet itself should not take all the blame for youngsters' cyber addiction. The Internet is supposed to enrich Chinese students' rote-learning-centered education, but it has not been used properly. As China's school system still attaches great importance to students' exam performance, overloaded students tend to seek a vent for their pressure, Wang said, so once they get to know the kaleidoscopic information on the Internet, they often lose self control. According to statistics reported by the China Internet Network Information Center, as of June 2013, China had 591 million web users, including 320 million under 30, or 54 percent of the total.