Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin on Thursday fined the paper NT$500,000 for the second day in a row. He said its animated news on the Internet and cell phones contained graphic violence that ran counter to the Child and Youth Welfare Act.

Hau also said that the capital’s 300 schools would cancel subscriptions to the Apple Daily. At city libraries Friday, visitors were asked to show an identification document if they wanted to read the newspaper. Teachers and parents were also requested not to bring the paper to school, cable stations reported.

Education Minister Wu Ching-chi followed Hau’s example and said Friday he would ban students at all primary and secondary schools from watching the animated news on the Internet.

On the front page of its Friday edition, the Apple Daily put the title “Martial Law?” with pictures of barbed wire in the background and an effigy of the mayor. The city said it wasn’t planning to restrict freedom of the press, but its measures were needed to protect children.

On Thursday, the paper officially apologized after groups of women and children’s rights activists and news reformers protested outside its Taipei offices. The editor-in-chief said the paper would improve the animated content.

The city government did not fine the Apple Daily Friday, but said it would not stop its actions against the paper until it introduced a ratings system for its publications.

At present, any reader can use a cell phone to scan a bar code printed in the paper to gain access to the uncensored content of the animated news site, Hau said.

The uproar over the service started Wednesday when civil groups complained that the animation showed violent crimes, sexual assaults and suicides in graphic detail.

As a result, the National Communications Commission also said it would be difficult to approve applications by the Apple Daily’s parent group, Next Media Interactive Limited, for the launch of five television channels.

Next denied reports that the animated news was a rehearsal for its future television shows.