The Ministry of Public Security (MPS), along with nine other
government departments, announced the launch of a campaign 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 online 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 illegal online 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.
A report by the Beijing Reformatory for Juvenile Delinquents
said 33.5 percent of its detainees were influenced by violent
online games or erotic websites when they committed crimes such as
robbery and rape.
(Xinhua News Agency April 13, 2007)