Reuters

BEIJING (Reuters) - China is working with its top two search engines to crack down on Internet pornography by restricting the use of keywords, Xinhua news agency said on Monday.
A recent survey of Internet use in China showed that 70 per cent of surfers used Chinese search engines such as Baidu and 3721 and U.S.-based Google Inc to look for information.

Baidu has barred 40,000 keywords.

"It means about half a million porn pages can't be clicked open as in the past," Baidu head Bi Sheng told Xinhua.

China began its crackdown on porn sites in mid-July and closed 700 Web sites in the first 10 days of the campaign, Xinhua said.

The country has 87 million Internet users, over 50 percent of whom are under 24 and approximately 18 percent are minors, Xinhua said.

The Ministry of Culture was also publishing a list of banned Internet games on its Web site.

The China Consumers' Association said that computer games had "unhealthy content" that could harm players' "mentality and then bring about a series of social problems."

"The PC games are always related to sex, violence, gambling, superstition and other unhealthy content harming national security," Xinhua quoted association secretary-general Teng Jiacai as saying.