China defended on Tuesday the use of a new screening software that will block pornography, violent content and other unhealthy content which will be installed on all computers starting from July 1.

All PC makers that plan to sell their products in China have to pre-load the Green Dam-Youth Escort filtering software, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology posted on its Web site on Tuesday.

Critics have complained that it this software could also be used to prevent Chinese internet users from searching for politically sensitive information.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang defended the government's administration of the Internet, claiming that it was in accordance with the law and that the software is aimed at blocking and filtering some unhealthy content, including pornography and violence.

The Chinese government pushes forward the healthy development of the internet. But it lawfully manages the internet, Qin added.

The government also bans Internet pornography and this year launched a nationwide crackdown that led to the closing of more than 1,900 Web sites.

If you have a child, or if you're expecting a child, I think you could understand the concerns of parents about the unhealthy contents on the Internet, Qin said at a regular briefing.

Recently, China had banned popular websites like Twitter, Flickr and even Microsoft's new search engine Bing.

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