China's Internet users are increasingly finding that most of their e-mails are no longer personal -- an average of 8.3 e-mails out of 16 they receive every week are junk mail, an official from the China Internet Association said Tuesday.
Most of the junk mail comes from domestic e-mail servers because of their default open relay function, giving people the opportunity to use them as transfer stations to send unsolicited mail, said Huang Chengqing, deputy secretary-general of the association.
Letting these e-mails run rampant will jeopardize the sound development of electronic mail and the spread of the Internet, Huang said.
He added that many e-mail servers are blacklisted for this reason.
Statistics from the China Internet Network Information Center show that the country had 45.8 million Internet users by June 2002, making it the second largest cyber community in the world after the United States.
Last December, more than 20 Internet service providers in China joined hands to crack down on junk e-mails by establishing a coordinated group, vowing to share information on technical solutions, promote public involvement and extend international cooperation.
(Xinhua News Agency March 3, 2003)
