Society

19,000 websites shut down, blocked in porn crackdown

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-07-28 21:40

BEIJING - China has shut down or blocked 19,000 websites found to contain lewd or pornographic content as of Wednesday since it launched a crackdown in December last year.

Statistics from the national office against pornographic and illegal publication found 15,500 out of the 19,000 websites were porn mobile WAP sites.

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In the meantime, public security authorities cracked more than 1,650 criminal cases, in which suspects were found to have spread pornography through Internet or mobile WAP sites, according to the office.

The office said it received more than 159,000 tip-offs from the public in porn-related cases.

On December 8, the country launched a crackdown on the spread of pornography through the Internet and mobile WAP sites.

China has the world's largest online population, which amounted to 420 million by the end of June, according to the Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC)

By the end of June, users of Internet capable mobile phones had reached 277 million and accounted for 65.9 percent of the total Internet users in the country.