China's authorities shut down 44,000 domestic websites and
homepages and arrested 868 people while investigating 524 criminal
cases in a campaign against Internet pornography last year, a
national teleconference has heard.
Another 1,911 people involved in 1,609 Internet pornography
activities were penalized, while the authorities canceled more than
440,000 pornographic messages online.
A total of 199,000 websites were registered by the authorities
last year, but another 14,000 were refused the access to the
Internet for failing to get official registration or to apply for
official approval.
The campaign will continue until September, after the Beijing
Olympic Games ends, the meeting, jointly organized by the Ministry
of Public Security, the Publicity Department of the Communist Party
of China (CPC) Central Committee and 11 other central departments,
heard.
A statement from the meeting said "pornographic sources" were
located in foreign countries and regions, while China was the
"soil" for the growth of pornographic websites.
The crackdowns would focus on those who profited from spreading
pornographic messages via the Internet and mobile phones, porn-site
operators in foreign countries and Chinese Internet users,
organizers of pornographic performances online and clients of
prostitution.
The authorities will give special attention to websites that
deal in audio and visual programs, blogging, videos, point-to-point
services, and mobile phone sites.
(Xinhua News Agency January 23, 2008)