Beijing residents who send pornographic text messages or
pictures on their cell phones may face fines up to 3,000 yuan
(US$385) and two weeks in administrative detention, the local
public security department has warned.
Those who sell such content can face jail terms between six
months and three years, according to China's criminal law and the
law on public security administration.
Over the past three weeks, Beijing police have arrested 19
second-hand cell phone dealers who were found selling mass storage
devices containing pornographic pictures or films.
The mass storage chips, which can hold a 60 minute-long film,
were being sold for only five or six yuan (US$0.64 to 0.77) each, a
spokesman with the Beijing Public Security Bureau told Xinhua.
He said Beijing police were continuing their crackdown on cyber
porn sales.
"It's also illegal for the public to download pornographic
content from the Internet or to forward it to friends," he said,
adding that the severest penalty in such cases would be 10 to 15
days in detention plus a fine up to 3,000 yuan.
China has 461 million cell phone subscribers and 137 million
people online -- the world's second-largest number of Internet
users after the United States.
(Xinhua News Agency March 28, 2007)