IT is getting popular in Shenzhen for young parents to register blogs with names of their newborns as domain names, a Shenzhen Economic Daily report said yesterday.

Most well-educated parents believe that the cheap, easy-to-build blogs will be of great help to their children growing up in a digital world.

Lu Shanshan, an IT employee, said she found it difficult to register a blog with her baby's name. "I found there already exists a blog with the same name as my baby. It must be done by some parents like me."

Lu said she had to provide a different name to register the blog. The cost of setting up such a blog is quite cheap, Lu said. The registration fee for a blog valid for 18 years is less than the cost of one month of milk for a baby. She said it was a common practice among many of her friends.

The report said many special e-mail addresses have been set up for children such as "baobao (Chinese pinyin for baby in English)@(baby's name).cn" and "dad@(baby's name).cn." The monthly fee for a domain name is no more than five yuan (US$0.625).

According to Web hosts, it is takes parents just two or three minutes to apply for a domain name, the report said.

Blogs have grown increasingly popular nationally after celebrities like Xu Jinglei, a Chinese actress and filmmaker, started writing their own blogs.

Editor: Yan