China's booming special economic zone of Shenzhen leads the country in putting up cyber police to curb online crimes and the spread of hazardous information.

The local police authorities said since the cyber police appeared in January, the amount of hazardous information at the city's major portal websites have reduced by 60 percent.

Since January, cyber police "Jingjing," a cyber policeman, and "Chacha," a cyber policewoman, have performed their duties at major portal websites. Both had cartoon icons on Internet.

Cyber police were allowed to perform their duties in three aspects. Firstly, "Jingjing" and "Chacha" patrol at some areas with frequently-occurred cyber crimes to give warning to cyber criminals.

Secondly, netizens can find, by clicking icons of "Jingjing" and "Chacha," information on rules and regulations of cyber space management and typical online crime cases.

Their third function is service. "Jiangjiang" and "Chacha" are responsible for receiving online crime reports from netizens and providing legal consultations concerning cyber crimes.

Shenzhen has about 4 million netizens and more than 5,000 major websites, 400 of which support cyber forum and chatting room. With rapid website development, online crimes, such as online stealing, cheating and gambling, become rampant.

Up to now, "Jingjing" and "Chacha" have received accumulated 100,000 clicks, provided more than 600 legal consultations and received more than 1,600 reports on online crimes, 235 of which have been proved effective.

(Xinhua News Agency May 15, 2006)