An online team dedicated to rooting out violence and terrorism on the Internet has made a difference over the past year in ridding cyberspace of improper and illegal content, an official of China's top Internet watchdog said.

The China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center received more than 20,000 violence- and terrorism-related reports from netizens - including many parents and youngsters who frequently surf the Internet - and it ordered websites and network managers to remove 200,000 pieces of unlawful content, Zhang Chenggang, director of the center, told China Daily in an exclusive interview.

A nationwide campaign against online violence and terrorism has been ongoing for many years, but the center, established in 2005 and operated under the supervision of China's Cyberspace Administration, determined it needed more resources to keep fighting illegal content on websites, micro blogs and text messaging sites, Zhang said.