Image: China porn police dressed in anime

They might appear mere anime characters, but these two virtual police officers have been created by the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau to combat online pornography and other Web activity considered illicit.

In what's just China's latest attempt to clamp down on the Internet, the animated beat officers will pop up--either on a motorcycle, in a car or on foot--to warn surfers on Chinese sites that they are being monitored, Reuters said.

Beginning Saturday, they will appear every half hour on computer screens run by 13 major Beijing-based portals, Reuters said.

August 29, 2007 12:03 PM PDT

Photo by: STR/AFP/Getty Images