China's education publishing house announced Saturday that the website address printed in a high school Chinese textbook was changed after netizens found it directed students to a porn website.
The People's Education Press (PEP), which is under the direct leadership of the Ministry of Education, said in a statement published on its Sina Weibo account on Saturday that "the web page had been altered and we have reported the situation to the Internet supervision department."
The website linked to poems that eulogize Zhuge Liang, a character from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms written by Luo Guanzhong.
A Net user reported to the Internet supervision department on Saturday, saying that the Chinese Ancient Poetry and Prose Appreciation textbook used by high school seniors contains a porn website address, according to Beijing-based newspaper the Legal Mirror. The newspaper said that a 15-year-old girl stumbled across the porn website after trying to access the address provided in the textbook, quoting her mother.
After the PEP investigated, it found that the URL which should have taken students to a page of poetry instead took them to a website filled with pornography.
The Legal Mirror uncovered that the website was registered on January 17 for one year by "Minghuizhao" instead of the People's Education Press. The registration listed the website's owner's name, address and phone number, but no one answered the phone.
The PEP somehow lost control of the domain name and it was then purchased by another person who then changed the content, Zou Liangdong, an Internet expert, told the Legal Mirror.
The page is inaccessible as of press time.
