Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has asked the Ministry of Information and Communications to conduct a comprehensive inspection of websites after local media sources ran stories featuring websites with large young readership that hosted violent and pornographic information.

He asked the ministry to strictly punish the websites, and report their findings to him by December 15.

Luu Vu Hai, head of the ministry’s Department of Broadcasting and Electronic Information, said that the contents of many websites licensed by the department differed from their registered aims in legal documents.

Tran Thuy Son, a 43-year-old mother in Hanoi said: “When I by chance read a popular youth website, which is licensed by the ministry, I became extremely concerned by the sexual content and suggestive images.”

She also found similar things on the other sites. “I wonder that effect these websites have on our young,” Son said.

Son’s daughter, 15-year-old Nguyen Dieu Thu, said: “I go to the websites every day for information and gossip about things I’m interested in.”

Hai said that if the department discovered violations, it would be responsible for reporting them to ministry inspectors and local departments of information and communications to mete out punishments.

According to Government regulations, websites publishing untruthful information will have their operation stopped. If violations contain criminal elements they will be investigated and taken to court./.