A Chinese Web site launched on Thursday allows Internet users in the world's most populous country to report illegal content online.
The Web site, the Illegal and Immoral Information Reporting Center (http://safesurf.china.cn/post.php), is run under the auspices of the Internet Society of China's News and Information Working Committee and allows Chinese Internet users to report Web sites that violate Chinese laws and regulations.
The site is set up so that users can classify tips of illegal content under several categories, including religious Web sites, sites that harm national security, sites promoting violence, pornographic Web sites and sites containing intellectual property violations.
Users who submit tips to the center are required to provide their names, e-mail and city of residence. However, the identity of the tipster will not be made public, according to the center's Web site.
Since its launch yesterday, the Web site has already brought in tips from Chinese Internet users about online information that is considered illegal in China.
"By noon on June 11, the Illegal and Immoral Information Reporting Center had already handled 145 cases submitted by the public, and 12 of those had been forwarded to national law enforcement departments and related agencies," according to a notice posted on the Web site.