BEIJING - China will move to regulate video content on the Internet in the wake of a surge in short satirical films online, state media said Wednesday.

Video spoofs have become so popular that Chinese have even coined a new slang term, "egao," to describe the act of using real film clips to create mocking send ups.

From late August or September, only authorized Web sites such as Sina.com, Sohu.com and Netease.com, will be allowed to show short films under the new regulations, the Xinhua News Agency said, citing an announcement by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.

A recent example of the trend, it said, was a 10-minute satire of a 1974 film called "Sparkling Red Star" which was remade with original clips to tell the story of an aspiring pop star competing in a television singing contest. The original film chronicles the struggles of a brave child soldier, Pan Dongzi, who fights feudalists and Japanese invaders in revolutionary-era China.

Xinhua said the "Sparkling Red Star" satire was widely criticized, with some commentators saying that that such a distortion of China's revolutionary history was "immoral and unacceptable."

Among other recent spoofs was a 20-minute short titled "The Bloody Case of the Steamed Bun," using clips from director Chen Kaige's elaborate costume drama "The Promise."