The Ministry of Public Security (MPS), along with nine other
government departments, announced the launching of a
campaign?on Thursday to restrict the spread of pornography on
the Internet in China.
"The boom of pornographic content on the Internet has
contaminated cyberspace and perverted China's young minds." said
Zhang Xinfeng, vice minister of MPS.
In the next six months, Zhang said, the ministries will crack
down on illegal on-line activities such as distributing
pornographic materials and organizing cyber strip shows, and purge
the web of sexually-explicit images, stories, and audio and video
clips.
The campaign will also target on illegal on-line lotteries and
contraband trade, fraud, and "content that spreads rumors and is of
a slanderous nature", said Zhang.
In Nov. 2006, Chinese police cracked the largest pornographic
website in the country and arrested the creator Chen Hui, who was
later sentenced to life imprisonment.
The website Chen started contained more than nine million
pornographic images and articles and it had attracted more than
600,000 registered users.
"The inflow of pornographic materials from abroad and lax
domestic control are to blame for the existing problems in China's
cyberspace," Zhang said.
China has roughly 123 million Internet users, most of whom are
young people. The Chinese government believes they need to be
protected from negative on-line influences.
A report by the Beijing Reformatory for Juvenile Delinquents
said 33.5 percent of its detainees were influenced by violent
on-line games or erotic websites when they committed crimes such as
robbery and rape.
(Xinhua News Agency April 13, 2007)