Crackdown targets phone fortune tellers

In the wake of its recent campaign against phone sex lines, Chinese regulators have targeted their latest crackdown against telephone fortune-tellers, Xinhua reported. Services such as "birthday decoding" and "new year fortune-telling" text message and telephone services are a particular focus of the crackdown, the agency said, on the grounds that they promoted superstition. "Any advertisements that harm young minds or violate regulations will be banned immediately," the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television was quoted as saying. The ban comes at a peak time for fortune telling services with the start of the Lunar New Year when many Chinese look for predictions about their health and wealth in the year ahead.