China Arrests 5,394 for Internet Porn in 2009

Chinese police arrested thousands in a drive against Internet pornography throughout 2009, officials said, vowing a deepening crackdown that critics say is being used to tighten overall censorship.

The Chinese government has run a highly publicized campaign against what officials said were banned smutty and lewd pictures overwhelming the country's Internet and threatening the emotional health of children.

Chinese police said late on Thursday the crackdown on Internet pornography had brought 5,394 arrests and 4,186 criminal case investigations in 2009 — a fourfold increase in the number of such cases compared with 2008.

The announcement on the Ministry of Public Security's Web site (www.mps.gov.cn) said the drive would deepen in 2010.

Police would "intensify punishments for Internet operations that violate laws and regulations", said the statement from the ministry's Internet security section.

"Strengthen monitoring of information," it urged, "Press Internet service providers to put in place preventive technology."

With an estimated 360 million Internet users, China has a bigger online population than any other country. But the ruling Communist Party worries the Internet could become a dangerous conduit for threatening images and ideas.

The ministry did not say how many of the 5,394 suspects arrested were later charged, released or prosecuted.

The anti-pornography drive has also netted many sites with politically sensitive or even simply user-generated content, in what some see as an effort by the government to reassert control over new media.

China has banned a number of popular websites and Internet services, including Google's Youtube, Twitter, Flickr and Facebook, as well as Chinese content sharing sites.

More ...

China Pays Informants

AFP, 12/6/09 - Chinese authorities have offered rewards of up to 10,000 yuan (1,465 dollars) to Internet users who report websites that feature pornography, state media reported Sunday.

However, the censors' latest campaign against content that harms public morality appears to have encouraged Internet users to look for porn online.

Within the first 24 hours, a hotline set up Friday by Internet Illegal Information Reporting Centre was flooded with more than 500 phone calls and 13,000 online tips, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The centre is looking for websites and mobile phone-accessible sites that contain obscene material or advertise sex products, the report said.

Rewards ranging from 1,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan will go to the first person to report each website, the centre said in a notice, adding a committee would review the tipoffs to determine what award was appropriate, Xinhua said.

China has launched several Internet crackdowns on pornography, con artists and political activists in the past.

Earlier this year China threatened to sanction major websites, including search engine giants Google and Baidu, alleging that pornography and other material that could corrupt young people was turning up in search results.

China Demands New PCs Have Porn Web Site Filter

IDG News Service, 6/9/09 - China will require that Web filtering software be included with all computers sold in the country, another step up in its efforts to control pornography and other content on the Internet.

The move follows a government crackdown on online smut that has led to the closure of thousands of Web sites this year, and concern that such campaigns could expand to target content that is political rather than pornographic.

PC makers will be required to pre-install the Web site-blocking program or offer it on a CD-ROM included with all PCs sold in China after July 1, according to a translation of a Ministry of Industry and Information Technology notification seen by IDG News Service.

The move is meant to protect youth from "unhealthy" information online, according to the statement.

The program, called Green Dam Youth Escort in Chinese, blocks only sites with pornographic content, and parents can turn it off, said Bryan Zhang, general manager of Jinhui Computer System Engineering, which designed the software.

But the measure triggered concern about wider censorship.

China blocked access to Web sites including Microsoft's Bing search engine last week, adding to a list of previously banned sites including YouTube and some blog services. Twitter and Hotmail were also blocked ahead of the 20th anniversary last week of Beijing's bloody crackdown on democracy protests, though those Web sites could load again on Monday.

Dell will consider including the software with new PCs only if its purpose is to block pornographic content from children, and only if it can be disabled, said Amit Midha, Dell's president for Greater China.

It will not install software that helps censor other Internet sites, Midha said. Midha also said Dell had not heard of any Chinese government notification ordering the program's use.

Dell is the third-biggest PC vendor in China, according to research company IDC.

Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard, China's number one and two PC vendors, declined to comment.

Image recognition technology lets Jinhui's program block individual images in addition to Web sites when they resemble sample pornographic images in a database, said Zhang, the company's manager. Users are notified when updates are available for download, he said.

Jinhui's Web sites says its program also prevents the use of proxy servers or circumvention software to visit banned sites, measures often used by savvy Internet users in China.

China's government will pay for the first year of the program's use for all PC buyers, after which they can buy the program from Jinhui, Zhang said.

Jinhui has previously worked with a research institute under China's public security ministry on a blocking system for "harmful" online video clips, and has "long-term technical cooperation" with the army's Information Engineering University, according to its Web site.

Jinhui won a government tender to distribute its software with PCs about a year ago, and has since worked with PC vendors to ensure compatibility and proficiency with the software, said Zhang.

The company has also worked with the government to put its software on PCs in schools, and hopes to market the product abroad, he said.

Threat Doesn't Stop Google, Yahoo and Youtube

Times of India, 1/6/09 - Searches made in China on Google, Yahoo and Youtube late on Tuesday evening continued to produce sexually explicit images a day after the Chinese government announced it would take stern action against search engines and other websites that did not filter out porn.

The government specifically mentioned Google and several Chinese search engines including Baidu and Sina. Youtube was blocked earlier but it is now easily accessible in China.

Google has survived stern filtering for political content that the Chinese government does not like but this may be the first time it will need to rough out over the issue of porn. The government has listed Google in the list of 19 different search engines, which would be targeted in its anti-porn campaign. The list includes some highly popular Chinese language sites: Baidu.com, Sina.com. Sohu.com, Netease.com and QQ.com.

It is apparent the Chinese government is accepting the plea of search engines that they are not responsible for the porn material because they do not produce them. The government feels that any medium that distributes and makes porn accessible to the people is responsible for the material along with the original producers.

Chinese officials began anti-porn campaign by initially targeting DVD shops and local websites and blogs. It also came up with a rule saying that bloggers will have to register their blogs in their own names instead of using pseudonyms. Officials have now taken on the Internet search engines after it detained a Shanghai woman for allegedly filming herself having sex and posting the video online. The video, available on Chinese websites and accessed through local search engines, became an instant hit with thousands of web surfers.

Seven different government agencies including the ministry of public security on Monday announced a month-long campaign against websites that "spread pornography and threaten the morals of young people".

"These websites violate public morality and harm the physical and mental health of young people." Cai Mingzhao, deputy director of the Information Office of the State Council, was quoted in the local media as saying.

Officials said the two extremely popular search engines, Google and Baidu, have failed to take "efficient" measures after receiving notices from the Internet watchdog that they were providing links to pornographic material.

They said that other portals like Sina and Sohu, and a number of video sharing sites and bulletin boards also have "problematic photos, blogs and postings".

Chinese Shut Down 44,000 Web Sites - 868 Arrested in 2007

Reuters, 1/25/08 - Chinese police have shut down a Web site selling real-time porn and arrested 33 people, state media said on Wednesday, part of a campaign which led to the shut-down of 44,000 Web sites and arrest of 868 people last year.

China launched a crackdown on online pornography and "unhealthy" Web content after Chinese President Hu Jintao said the country's sprawling Internet posed a threat to social stability.

The live site, whose server was based in Taiwan, charged viewers to watch strip shows or other pornographic performances that were staged in China, Xinhua news agency said.

"This operation started up in the second half of 2006 and took in more than 1 million yuan ($137,000) in just three months," it said.

The site was said to have been the most widely visited pornographic site among those that were busted as part of last year's clean-up, Xinhua said.

Chinese authorities shut down 44,000 domestic Web sites and home pages and arrested 868 people while investigating 524 criminal cases during the campaign.

The campaign will continue until September, after the close of the Beijing Olympics.

Rights groups have said the campaign has been used as a thinly veiled pretext to crack down on dissent and round up online dissidents ahead of the Olympics.

China has attempted to stifle online criticism of the ruling Communist Party and discussion related to sensitive topics such as Tibet and Taiwan by ordering Web sites to register with authorities.

China employs tens of thousands of human Internet censors and a vast network of filters to control online information.

China last month said it would crack down on video-sharing Web sites, and allow only state-controlled sites to post video content online in new restrictions effective from January 31.

Hundreds Arrested for Porn at Chinese Colleges

ANI, 5/31/07 - A Chinese campaign to clean up online pornography has reached college campuses with the Education Ministry lashing out at some school bulletin board systems (BBS) for making money from porn.

"We strongly condemn Web site hosts for making 'unlawful' money by distributing pornographic information," Vice-Minister of Education Li Weihong said.

Li was quoted by The China Daily as saying that the ministry would open a section on its website for the public to report on campus websites and is drafting guidelines to regulate campus Internet services.

She also called on college instructors to be Internet experts to "get to know the mentality of today's students from the net".

Media reports have said that nearly half of the 23 million minor Internet surfers in China visit porn websites.

A report from the Ministry of Public Security released over the weekend showed that the anti-porn campaign had shown results.

From April 12 - when the campaign started - to May 15, police authorities have blocked more than 4,800 porn websites and advertisements. Nearly 160,000 bits of online information, including 90,000 about pornography and others on illegal gambling and drug selling, have also been filtered during the period, the report shows.

Police also cracked 244 online porn crimes and caught more than 270 suspects by mid-May, according to the report.

The vice-minister also revealed that the government would assign more "virtual cops" to monitor and wipe out online porn. The experiment is confined to nine cities and the ministry said it planned to expand it to 100 cities.

Anti Internet Porn Campaign

China Daily, 4/12/07 - The Ministry of Public Security (MPS), along with nine other government departments, announced the launching of a campaign in Beijing 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 November 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.

China Closes Porn Websites

AFP, 6/7/06 - Beijing authorities have revoked the licenses of six Internet websites and temporarily shut down 12 others during a 90-day city-wide crackdown, state press reported.

Over 858,000 yuan (107,000 dollars) in fines have been collected from 35 websites and Internet service providers who allegedly violated Beijing regulations, the Beijing Evening News reported.

Names of the websites and the details of their Internet content were not given.

Among over 1,700 Internet cafes inspected, 30 "black" Internet cafes were also shut down and 446 computers confiscated, the paper said.

In March this year, the capital launched a campaign to clean up "unhealthy content" on Beijing-based websites and to bar those thought to be accessing such material from the city's Internet cafes.

"Harmful" content authorities want to exclude range from pornography and violence to politically sensitive material such as democracy and human rights.

International media watchdogs such as Reporters Without Borders regularly criticize China for its strict controls of freedom of expression on the Internet.

AP, 3/23/06 - Chinese authorities have shut down dozens of websites that carried pornographic material or offered pirated movies or online games, the government announced Thursday.

Authorities closed 53 websites with pornographic or violent content, China's Xinhua News Agency reported.

"China is determined to protect copyright and will continue its efforts to fight against porn and piracy," Xinhua said.

China has the world's second-largest population of Internet users, with more than 100 million people online.

The government encourages Internet use for education and business but strictly controls content and tries to block access to material deemed pornographic or subversive.

Under pressure from China's trading partners, authorities have expanded their online enforcement in recent years to include illegally reproduced movies, music and software.

China Closes 2,000 Websites in 2005

AFP, 2/6/06 - Chinese regulators closed down more than 2,000 websites last year because they had too much sex, violence or politics, state media reported on Monday.

The crackdown was part of a nationwide campaign to eradicate the distribution of pornography and other illegal activities, the Beijing Morning Post said.

The paper referred to the websites as "unhealthy," a word describing a broad range of illegal content including pornography, excessive violence and sensitive political or religious issues.

China has stepped up its policing on the Internet in recent months in an attempt to stem what it sees as an unhealthy influence on the young.

The General Administration of Press and Publication said in November it had already issued warnings to 53 websites that provide downloads for pornographic games.

The Chinese government announced revised Internet rules in September that require Internet operators to re-register their news sites and police them for content that can "endanger state security" and "social order."

Any content that "harms national security, reveals state secrets, subverts political power, (and) undermines national unity" is also banned.

The regulations further prohibit posts that "instigate illegal gatherings, formation of associations, marches, demonstrations or disturb social order."

China Winning War on Internet Porn

BEIJING (Reuters) 12/29/05 - China is winning the war on Internet pornography but it will be hard to eradicate entirely as many Web sites are based outside of the country, a senior police official said on Thursday.

China routinely blocks access to Internet sites on sensitive subjects such as self-ruled Taiwan, which China regards as its own, and the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy demonstrations, which were crushed by the military with heavy loss of life.

Regulations also target sites that publish fabricated information and content deemed to harm national security.

"The spread of Web sites that involve pornography has been bought under effective control," Zhao Shiqiang, vice head of the Ministry of Public Security's Internet security and supervision bureau, told a news conference.

Police had detained 221 people and shut down almost 600 domestic pornographic Web sites as of the end of November, Zhao said.

"Due to the specialized nature of Internet technology, there are still some places where pornography exists," he added. "Harmful information on overseas sites can still be transmitted internally, and a minority of people try to use the Web to carry out illegal activities."

China has been taking aim at violent Web-based games as well as spam, fraud and gambling.

An average of 60 million spam e-mails are sent every day in China, according to security ministry figures.

New rules earlier this year targeted Internet news content to tighten the noose on freewheeling bloggers and rein in a growing source of information for the mainland's more than 100 million Internet users.

They also banned posts that "instigate illegal gatherings, formation of associations, marches, demonstrations, or disturb social order," indicating a lesson learned from anti-Japanese protests that swept China last April and which spread in part due to postings on Internet bulletin boards and chat rooms.

Chinese Crack Down on Internet Porn

Kyodo, 12/29/05 - Chinese authorities cracked 90 Internet porn cases during a three-month search in late 2005 using tips from the public plus high-tech online surveillance, police said Thursday.

In the three months ending Nov. 30, the ministries of public security and information industry worked with the State Council Information Office to collect online tips to find that Net users are entering chatrooms to watch pornographic performances, said Zhao Shiqiang, a Ministry of Public Security Ministry's Internet crimes official.

Internet users from every part of China except the Tibet Autonomous Region use low-tech interactive Internet functions to sign into paid services that let them click on an image to see a pornographic "performance," Zhao said.

The crackdown, which follows similar action in 2004 but goes "deeper," netted 221 suspects, 123 of whom were detained and 25 of whom were charged with crimes under three anti-pornography clauses of the criminal code, Zhao told a press briefing. About 600 websites were involved and 35 were shut down.

Police and the other departments used 24-hour surveillance to find violations based on tips averaging two to 13 per day and technical means to detect unregistered domain names.

Online tips were the top investigation tool, Zhao said.

"This special campaign attained widespread support and positive participation from every element of society and attained a considerably good result for society," Zhao said.

Meanwhile, the State Council News Office tried to change people's thinking by placing articles in major national media such as Xinhua News Agency and the People's Daily, Liu Zhengrong, deputy director of the Internet Bureau of the State Council Information Office, said at the briefing.

In one case, pornographic video of a woman in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region sparked a rape, Zhao claimed.

The autumn 2005 crackdown has cleaned up the Internet for China's more than 100 million users, the Ministry of Public Security added in a statement.

On March 1, China will enact a new Internet regulation to police for pornography, gambling and junk e-mail, about 60 million instances of which are received in China every day. Last year police logged 14,000 Internet crimes, up from 2,700 in 2000.

See also ...
China Threatens Porn Distributors with Life in Prison
China Cracking Down on Cell Phone Porn

This page contains copyrighted material and is made available to better understand pornography, e.g., its effect on society. It is distributed without profit to those who have an interest in receiving the information for research and educational purposes.