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But there are concerns about widespread pornographic content in online literature, which can be accessed by children. Yang Chang, a judge of juvenile crime in a Beijing court, told China Central Television of a case in which four teenage boys raped a girl after reading porn online.

"Thirty years ago, literature editors had it much easier. The editors all knew that literary descriptions of the human body should stop at the parts above the chest, and descriptions of intimacy should go no further than kissing," according to veteran editor Liu Feng with Nanjing-based Yilin Press.

But ideas about what is and is not acceptable changed as Chinese society opened up and developed, adding to the difficulty in deciding what should and should not be allowed to be printed.

Though both Anquan.org and Chuangshi Literature have developed computer programs to help scrutinize information, inappropriate content will always find a way around the system.

A year ago, Anquan.org, an independent third-party website dedicated to safeguarding the Web environment, advertised for a Chief Web Porn Identification Officer, offering an annual salary of 200,000 yuan ($32,020).

The job hit news headlines thanks to one of the interview questions, in which the applicants were asked to analyze a sentence full of puns and sexual innuendoes.

"We're looking for someone who is familiar with not only the Chinese legal rules on pornography but also with internet companies' common practices in China and abroad," says Zhang Yi, director of marketing with Anquan.org.

They hope the chief officer will help establish standards for porn identification, and instruct their 2,000 identification officers who are zealous netizens who have volunteered to protect Internet safety, Zhang says. "But the post is still vacant. We haven't found someone who fits the bill."

However, to online writers, the line between pornography and art is simple.

Yang Hao, a Qingdao-based writer whose pen name is Sanjie Dashi, has attracted more than 100 million clicks to his humorous and history-based online stories.

"The writers' intention in creation tells us everything," Yang says.

"If something is written to arouse sexual interest, it's porn. If is written for fun, for simple pleasure and enjoyment, it's art."

Yang says that more Web porn in the form of online literature has surfaced over the past two years. "The industry is getting bigger and some covet the profit," he says.