A new regulation that will see the personal information of convicted pedophiles made public has won public extensive support and expert skepticism.

The regulation, released by the local government of Cixi in East China's Zhejiang Province, stipulates that convicts' personal information - including a picture of their face, name, current address, workplace and offence - should be publicized on government websites, WeChat accounts and Sina Weibo accounts while they are on probation and after they have finished serving their prison sentence.

The regulation will apply to criminals who are sentenced to more than five years in jail for raping minors, repeatedly sexually assaulting minors or organizing minors to engage in prostitution.

The regulation will also affect those who are given administrative punishment but commit such a crime again within two years. The information will be made public for five years.

The regulation won support online with 98 percent of 2,430 respondents in a people.cn poll saying they approve of the measure.

Sun Xuemei, one of the founders of Girls' Protection, - an NGO launched to help raise children's awareness of their rights - told news portal cnr.cn that it is necessary to publicize criminals information as many have sexually abused more than one child. 

A 2016 report released by Sun's organization said that nearly 30 percent of the 340 cases of child sexual abuse revealed by media reports in 2015 involved abusers who sexually assaulted more than one child.

However, Zhi Zhenfeng, an associate research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the China News Service that there are pros and cons to this measure. On the one hand, the regulation aims to help the public take precautions; on the other hand, it will have a negative impact on those people and affect their reintegration into society after they are released from prison.