China announces new anti-porn Internet campaign

China has launched its latest campaign against Internet pornography that will also take aim at fraud, illegal lotteries and "rumour-spreading", the official Xinhua news agency said.

"The boom of pornographic content on the Internet has contaminated cyberspace and perverted China's young minds," it quoted Zhang Xinfeng, vice-minister of public security, as saying in a late night report.

"The inflow of pornographic materials from abroad and lax domestic control are to blame for the existing problems in China's cyberspace," Zhang said.

The campaign will crack down on "distributing pornographic materials and organising cyber strip shows, and purge the Web of sexually explicit images, stories, and audio and video clips," it added.

Zhang said they will target "content that spreads rumours and is of a slanderous nature" as well, though he did not provide details.

"China has roughly 123 million Internet users, most of whom are young people. The Chinese government believes they need to be protected from negative online influences," Xinhua said.

Last November a Chinese court sentenced the founder of the country's largest pornography Web site to life imprisonment.

Pornography was among the vices nearly wiped out in China under the strict and puritanical rule of Mao Zedong. But since economic reforms began and social controls have loosened, it has become more readily available.

China has an army of cyber police who patrol the Internet for unfavourable content, but their targets are more often politically sensitive subjects than pornography.

China's Porn King Gets Life in Prison

China is cracking down on Internet pornography suppliers.

Chinese authorities made an example out of Chen Hui, the 28-year-old Internet porn king, and sentenced him to life in prison. Eight others who were connected to Mr. Chen's venture were given jail terms ranging from 13 months to 10 years.

The authorities would have made Chairman Mao proud. Pornography, along with prostitution, drugs and extramarital sex, was a vice he wanted erased from Chinese society. Yet he enjoyed the perks of being a dictator. In "The New Emperors," he is described also as a porn collector, a drug addict and a "sex maniac" who had women at the ready to pleasure him.

While the rich and the almighty party apparatchiki indulge in sex, drugs and rock and roll, the law applies differently to less important, ordinary Chinese.

Like opium that brought 19th Century China to its knees, the Internet should scare the Party, and not because of subversive contents. But how does Beijing monitor 111 million users?

China's Internet censorship scheme is 'sophisticated and effective.' It uses a combination of legal restrictions and highly efficient hardware and software filters. There are human monitors, too, to see who will get jailed next.

Mr. Chen's trial began in August after prosecutors charged him with running "Qingseliuyuetian," or Pornographic Summer. He had eluded the authorities by using overseas servers and shifting them regularly. Much of his assets are believed to be in foreign banks. That may or may not do much good for him now.

"China's Department of Public Security has sent officials to supervise the trial," Xinhua news agency wrote.

China now has an "anti-pornography and anti-piracy" office. The two go hand in hand when it comes to selling pirated pornographic DVD's. An unidentified man received 12 years last week for that crime. (Read more about piracy here.)

When it comes to Internet addiction, China's Civilization Office is leading the charge to protect teenagers. Other than promoting what the Chinese are calling "green" games, it is unclear what else they can do to confine teenagers to friendly content.

But the Internet is being used for sex education, a topic neither school teachers nor parents want to talk about openly.