The Chinese government is planning to enact a law requiring all PCs to be supplied with internet blocking software.

According to the Australian, Chinese officials have claimed that the measures have been enacted to reduce the availability of pornography and “harmful” content.

The Chinese government, which has yet to publicly announce the move, has already informed PC manufacturers of the new requirements. The software must be preinstalled or supplied on a disc.

The software, named ‘Green Dam – Youth Escort,’ links PCs to a centralised database of banned websites and blocks content accordingly. The developer, Jinhui, is a long term partner of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security and works closely with the People’s Liberation Army’s Information Engineering University.