China is obligated to protect adolescents from unhealthy information online, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang said 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 (6.1 million U.S. dollars) 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 18, 2009)