BANGKOK, Thailand - Buddhist monks have been warned to stop flirting with girls on social networking sites.
A Thai minister reportedly asked website operators to monitor Hi5.com for monks' participation and kick them off the site. He also urged other users to not interact with monks behaving inappropriately on the site.
Buddhism is the main religion in Thailand, and monks are not allowed to behave in a sexual manner.
The warning was made last week when police in Thailand investigated a claim accusing a monk of using the Internet to lure a teenage girl to his temple and rape her.
The Bangkok Post reported that the Prime Minister's Office requested that the Information, Communications and Technology ministry monitor the use of Hi5. Officials might block access to the site to solve the problem, but a law passed in 2007 requires a judge's permission to block the site, the Bangkok Post reported.
Hi5 Networks, which is based in San Francisco, claims that Hi5 is the world's third-largest social network, with more than 70 million users in 250 countries. The site claims to have 800,000 active members in Thailand.
The site features an section that focuses on online safety, telling users that their posts might put them at risk or embarrass them, and advising them to not meet with strangers.
