People livestream square dance on Kuaishou, a Beijing-based short video app. Photo: VCG

Online hosts in 10 cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, could be made to obtain a license for hosting to improve their quality and purify the internet environment.

Online program hosts on different self-media platforms could now be licensed by the National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) after undergoing training, the official Sina Weibo account of the publicity office of Chengdu Government in Southwest China's Sichuan Province posted on Saturday.

Cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu have become the first cities to try the policy. 

Anyone who is interested in becoming an online host can undergo the training and take an exam, according to the Weibo post.

Once they pass the exam, they can obtain the "qualified license for online host position," said the post.

The training comes under a project initiated by the NRTA and CNR Video Media, according to the Chengdu Economic Daily in June. 

An exam and training center on "national online hosts professional qualification and ability training" opened in Jincheng College of Sichuan University in Chengdu in June, said the report.

"The move aims to further lift online content producers' quality, and thus lift the quality of online video and audio content and build a clean and just online cultural space," a person in charge was quoted by the Chengdu Economic Daily as saying.

According to the Chengdu government post, China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security is considering including online hosts as a new profession in the country and is collecting opinions from the public.

On October 8, the China Association of Performing Arts announced a blacklist of 42 online hosts after they posted illegal content involving nudity or gambling. These hosts are forbidden from going live online for five years, the China News Service reported on Wednesday.

Global Times