A Chinesee academic has harnessed the power of the country's huge, frenetically innovative blogosphere in a stand against child-trafficking. The crime has become a national scourge in which as many as 60,000 children a year are abducted from the streets and sold. Child-trafficking in China overwhelmingly involves minors from the larger cities being stolen from their parents and sold for between 20,000 and 70,000 yuan ($2995-$10,475) to families in rural provinces.
In the 15 days since Yu Jianrong established his Twitter-style account, the microblog -- entitled Take a Picture to Rescue Begging Children -- has exploded in popularity and commands a network that reaches into local government and media In just a few days of operation, the blog is thought to have saved half a dozen children from misery, reuniting them with their parents after years of separation. The professor has nearly 110,000 readers following the updates and, more critically, a 1000-strong and rapidly swelling national photo archive of possible child-trafficking victims. Users can upload pictures of children who may have been abducted. The pictures have been recirculated to some of the best-read microblogs in China, where their potential audience has morphed into the tens of millions. The Australian
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