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Fighting online porn 'long, hard'

By Zhu Zhe (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-01-24 08:02

Ridding the Web of pornography will be a "long and complex" task that will require international cooperation, a senior official said on Friday.

Since the launch on Jan 5 of a campaign to clean up the Internet, some 1,250 websites have been closed down and 3.3 million items of "harmful" information have been deleted, Liu Zhengrong, deputy director of the State Council Information Office's Internet bureau, said.

Police have also arrested 41 people and handled 27 cases relating to online pornography, he said.

"But freeing the Web from vulgarity is a huge and complex task," he said.

Many of the websites that were closed down have already moved their servers overseas, which makes them more difficult to supervise, Liu said.

Also, much of the "erotic and vulgar information" hails from other countries, he said.

"It reminds us that the Internet is a global network, and solving its problems requires the combined effort of all countries," he said.

The government is keen to work closely with international organizations to ensure a clean Web for the people of China, Liu said.

It has also been looking at Internet management practices and laws in other countries, including the United States and Britain, he said.

"We found that the common goal of all these governments is to ensure Internet users feel safe when they go online," he said.

Authorities are also having to deal with the fact that the Internet in China is growing at a rapid rate, Liu said.

According to the China Internet Network Information Center, China had 298 million users at the end of last year, more than any other country in the world.

Every day, about 240,000 people log on for the first time and 3,000 new sites are uploaded, Liu said.

"We expect that in three years the number of users will surpass 500 million."

The campaign against porn and other vulgar content, which involves seven government departments, has a sole aim, Liu said.

"The purpose of this campaign is simple: to make parents confident their children are safe when they surf the Net."

More than 35 percent of China's Web surfers are under 19, official figures show.

Li Jiaming, director of the China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center, said the campaign has been well supported.

Since Jan 5, the center has received 18,590 reports from members of the public, of which 78 percent were about sites that contained erotic or vulgar content, he said.

Also, 87 percent of the websites that have been closed down were identified by ordinary people, he said.

"It shows people support the campaign."