Access to information about sex on the Internet will be further restricted under a new regulation by the Ministry¹ of Health.

Under the regulation, which will come into effect on July 1, websites that link to sex-related studies and research can be accessed only by health professionals and researchers.

Under the new regulation, the Ministry of Health will better manage and monitor health-related websites, which are already required to be approved and registered with health authorities, said an Ministry of Health official surnamed Yang yesterday.

Xia Guomei, a researcher with the Shanghai Academy of Social Science, told China Daily that she welcomes the regulation in general, because many websites, which purport² to give information about health, actually contain "harmful" information like pornography.

However, scientific sexual health knowledge and information is in high demand, and the public should not be denied this information, she noted³.

Research shows that many Chinese adults educate themselves about sex through the Internet.

"The Internet itself is good as a channel for delivering and receiving information, particularly for proper sex education," Xia said.

The regulation applies to websites that are advertised as being health-based, including websites run by research institutes and private companies. It gave no details about how professionals would register for the information.

Currently, China suffers from a lack of good sex education for its people, experts say. Most young adults find no place to learn about sex except from doctors and family planning departments.

Since the beginning of the year, more than 1,000 websites have been closed for distributing porn and other lewd⁴ materials to clean up the Internet.

Questions:

1. When will the new regulation come into effect?

2. What type of websites the regulation applies to?

3. Why more than 1,000 websites have been closed since the beginning of the year?

Answers:

1. July 1.

2. The regulation applies to websites that are advertised as being health-based, including websites run by research institutes and private companies.

3. For distributing pornography and other lewd materials to clean up the Internet.