The head of Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) Zhuang Rongwen said such efforts were crucial to build a "modern socialist country", given that China had over a billion netizens and was the world's largest digital society.
The comments were published in an internal Communist Party newspaper. Rongwen said the Party should take advantage of the internet's ability to facilitate communication, he said, and use it to "let the party's innovative theories 'fly into the homes of ordinary people'".
He said that good role models should be better publicised and young internet users should be guided to develop good cyberspace habits rather than behaviours such as cyberbullying, he said, adding that internet firms should improve their self-discipline.