China is obligated to protect adolescents from unhealthy information online, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang said on Thursday.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said on June 9 that the country would have all new computers produced or sold after July 1 pre-installed with filter software packages, which could filter porn text and images to protect minors from unhealthy information.

The MIIT has invested 41.7 million yuan (US$6.1 million) in the software.

"This is the international practice," Qin told a regular news briefing on Thursday, in response to a question on the software.

About 48 percent of teenagers have visited porn sites, the Chinese Youth Research Center has estimated.

(Xinhua News Agency June 19, 2009)