According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the Chinese government hopes to pre-install web censoring software in PCs sold in China after July 1 to block some banned websites.

The Chinese government has reportedly sent notices to major PC makers, but has not released the requirement to the public. The software, which is called "Green Dam Youth Escort", is mainly used to block pornographic websites, aiming to prevent young people from harmful information about illegal sex acts.

According to Bryan Zhang, founder of the software developer Zhengzhou Jinhui Computer System Engineering, the company plans to pass the addresses of the banned websites to PCs via an Internet updating system and the updating method of the software is like those of operating system software and anti-virus software.

A representative from China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology told Chinese news website Hexun.com that the Wall Street Journal saw a copy of the notice, which stated PC makers should pre-install the Green Dam software in their PCs sold after July 1, 2009. The notice also states that the PC makers can pre-install the software in the hard discs or offer the software disc with the computers. In addition, PC makers should report the shipment volume of PCs with the software to the government.