Pity if you will the poor old Chinese authorities in their fight to stem the tide of internet-provoked social destabilisation. First up, you've got Sister Furong flaunting herself like a two-bit hussy, then there's the thousands of addicts relentlessly gaming themselves into online degeneracy.

But it gets worse. One researcher has found that up to 20,000 Chinese regularly log on to chat rooms completely stark bollock naked - a small percentage of the country's estimated 87 million net users, 'tis true, but more than enough to set Beijing alarm bells ringing.

That, at least, is the conclusion of China Youth Association researcher Liu Gang, who told the Shanghai Daily: "At first, we thought it was merely a game for a few mentally abnormal people. But as our research continued, we found the problem was much larger than expected."

Yup, there's actually thousands of mentally abnormal people out there flashing their privates and "performing provocative poses". The basis for this shocking statistic is Liu's investigation of "10 site participants, eight of whom were single men aged 25-35 without steady jobs".

Ah, that explains it. A couple of years in the army will set the perverts back on the straight and narrow before it's too late because, as the Shanghai Daily notes: "Child development authorities worry that baring one's body to strangers will have negative consequences on a youngster's personal growth."

Well, we see their point, although we're pretty certain that baring one's body to strangers would have very postive growth consequences for one part of the average 25-35 year old's body, although it's not something we want to dwell on at great length. ®