China arrests 5,000 for internet pornography

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China arrests 5,000 for internet pornography offences
China arrested more than 5,000 people in 2009 in a drive to purge the internet of pornography and other "harmful information".

By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai
Published: 5:01PM GMT 01 Jan 2010

The ministry of public security said 5,394 people had been arrested and that over 9,000 websites had been deleted for having pornographic content. The ministry did not say how many people had subsequently been put on trial.

The authorities released the figures with a warning that its policing of the internet would intensify in 2010 in order to preserve "state security".

China maintains strict censorship of the internet in order to make sure that unhealthy content, including criticism of the Communist Party, does not reach a wide audience.

Websites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter are all blocked and Google has received a public warning for not censoring itself more thoroughly.

With over 350 million internet users, the government worries that any small cracks in its authority could quickly spiral out of control. In the first six months of 2009, an average of 221,000 Chinese a day started using the internet for the first time, or 153 new users a minute.

The authorities are also hoping to tackle the growing number of Chinese hackers and fraudsters who use the internet to spread viruses and steal personal information.

The government has tightened regulations for websites, forcing owners to prove their identity before being allowed to register a name.

The ministry said it would "strengthen punishment for internet operators that violate the laws and regulations" in the coming year and "severely punish operations that have serious problems with harmful information".

"Purifying the internet environment and cracking down on internet crimes is related to long-term state security," the ministry said.

In December, the government offered a reward of up to 10,000 yuan (£906) to people who reported websites that feature pornography.

The government attempted last year to coerce computer manufacturers into only selling computers which had a censorship program called Green Dam Youth Escort already installed. The move was eventually defeated.

Maybe their afraid of becoming too much like Japan.

That's a nation that has its collective FREAK on.

I thought Japan, like Australia, had strict rules on violent, sexual and other media...

I thought Japan, like Australia, had strict rules on violent, sexual and other media...

That would surprise me. They even have a fertility festival that displays giant penises and even sells lollipops shaped like a penis. Not to be a prude, but even a biker forum I'm on (which talks about porn and sex much of the time) had one guy comment, "Japan, you're scaring us. Stop it."

Considering the raw horror expressed by a bunch of tough guys at the open display of sexual organs it would seem Hollywood is missing a big opportunity in devising monsters for its horror films. Instead of the usual equipment of huge sharp teeth and claws the monsters would seemingly inspire true terror if equipped with multiple giant penises and vaginas and liberally sprinkled with rosy nipples a la Janet Jackson.

I thought Japan, like Australia, had strict rules on violent, sexual and other media...

I don't know, I hear Japan has the highest incident of human trafficking and a lot of strange loopholes. Use to be the norm to lock their females up behind a key and lock and sell them into sex trade. The thinking at the time was that foreign men would be less susceptible to raping and pillaging if they provided for by the less fortunate.

How many of the websites were actually pornographic and how many were just labelled as pornographic for other reasons? I remember the filtering software at my old high school blocking all sorts of perfectly inoccuous websites because of alleged pornographic content.

As for China (just above Korea, but still scraping very bottom of the barrel) doing that, I'm not surprised at all. They want EVERYTHING off the internet that isn't what THEY put there. They limit any and all personal freedom allowing people to see only what their leaders believe is agreeable. And their leaders are all apparently prudes.