INDECENT cartoons can be found on sale at bookshops near schools, the Daily Sunshine reported yesterday.

It said some cartoons depicting naked girls, teachers kissing students and other vulgar scenes were being sold at a bookshop near a primary school it did not identify.

One of the paper's reporters also found novels with naked women on the covers. Most of the books were cheap second-hand copies.

The report said similar books were also available at other shops near schools.

A fifth grader surnamed Chen told the paper: "Most of my classmates like cartoon books. But some of the cartoons they contain are terrible."

"Some boys are bad. They show us cartoons of naked people. Some cartoons show people bathing, kissing and hugging. We found them disgusting but the boys find them funny," she said.

A fourth grader surnamed Yang told the paper that some boys even copied the cartoons to show them to girls.

The students said the cartoons were not only available at bookstores, but also stationery stores and gift shops.

A student surnamed Chen from Xingda Primary School said she had seen a pair of her schoolmates kissing in the canteen. "They must be imitating what they have seen in the cartoons," she said.

While lewd cartoons are being read by primary school students, pornographic videos have been found circulating among high school students, the paper said.

"Ten years ago, students read indecent cartoons. But I have not seen my students reading them. As far as I know, junior middle school students now watch porn videos," an unidentified teacher was quoted as saying.

Although many students are reluctant to attend sex education classes, they are eager to learn about it in private, she told the paper.

Talking about sex has remained a taboo subject in most Chinese families, leading children try to learn more about it in inappropriate ways. An online survey of 14,296 Internet users found 66.83 percent of them got to know about sex through pornographic Web sites, videos and books. Only 3.09 percent of them acquired the knowledge from their parents and teachers.

Yang Jia'an, vice director of Shenzhen Health Education Research Institute, suggested parents discuss sex more often with their children.

(Lin Min)