Thursday April 22, 1:46 PM

China has stepped control of the Internet in its largest city Shanghai with the installation of video surveillance equipment and software in public places.

The directive from the Shanghai Culture, Radio, Film and TV Administration was designed to prevent the surfing of banned websites and to stop people under 16 from entering Internet bars, the Shanghai Daily said.

Authorities have already installed video cameras in every Internet cafe in the city so officials can keep track of youngsters' movements, the newspaper said.

The yet-to-be installed software will force users to input personal identification data to log on, while a supervisory centre will monitor surfing and check whether a cafe was illegally operating at night, it said.

Foreigners will have to input their passport number.

"The software, which cost seven million yuan (850,000 dollars) to develop, can help supervise more than 110,000 computers at the city's 1,325 Internet bars and spot illegal activities immediately," the paper quoted project director Yu Wenchang as saying.

The measures are part of a six-month campaign by municipal authorities, which began this month, to crackdown on Internet bars.

Fifty-seven net bars have been punished or shut down in the city so far.

There are roughly 70 million Internet users in China, putting the world's most populous nation second behind the United States in terms of people online.

The Internet explosion is both a blessing and a curse for the Chinese authorities, who want people to be more tech-savvy without absorbing too many foreign ideas or spreading anti-government messages.

Internet users are frequently jailed for posting articles critical of the government.

Source: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/040422/1/3joas.html