THE GREAT FIREWALL of China is crumbling under the weight of the nation's 45 million Internet users.
Observers say Beijing's elaborate system of blocking software, human monitoring and increasingly restrictive laws has had a hard time keeping up with the exponential growth in online traffic.
'It is fairly simple for an Internet user with a modicum of technical knowledge to access blocked sites,' said Steve Yap, a director with NFO WorldGroup's Hong Kong office.
China has tried to block unwanted information from getting into the country and state secrets from getting out since the Internet became commercially available to individuals in 1995.
Along with pornography and other material deemed to be obscene or illegal, China attempts to block access to sensitive political topics such as domestic democracy movements, Tibet or Taiwan independence and the Falun Gong spiritual sect.
Censors also target news organisations, including CNN, the BBC and the online editions of many newspapers. The South China Morning Post Web site, SCMP.com, has frequently been inaccessible from the mainland, especially when controversial topics are featured.
There appears to be little consistency on exactly what is banned. the New York Times can be viewed (after the newspaper's editor last year appealed directly to President Jiang Zemin) but seemingly benign sites dealing with parenting or technology cannot.