Chinese state media People's Daily announced the country has banned online games featuring mafia and street gangs, claiming such a ban is necessary because these games are harmful to the youth.

The Ministry of Culture has issued a notice prohibiting such games, which have thrived on the Internet recently, said the People's Daily, the Communist Party's mouthpiece.

The games "highlight the anti-social gangster behaviour of beating, killing, looting, raping and cheating, and they promote bloodshed and violence", the ministry said in a statement posted on its website on Monday.

They must be banned because they "gravely threaten and distort society's efforts to build a lawful society and moral codes and will easily harm the youth", the statement said.