BEIJING, CHINA – Beijing authorities have shut down six adult sites for featuring “unhealthy content” and to prevent their “negative influence” on society, the Beijing News reported Saturday.In addition to the six sites that were closed down, operators of two other websites were given a deadline by Chinese authorities to “clean up” the contents of their sites or they too will face closure.
Authorities in Beijing began an aggressive campaign to eliminate porn sites in 2004; last year alone, 11 people were sentenced to up to 12 years in prison for running sexually explicit websites.
Chinese authorities have bundled their anti-porn efforts with the government’s efforts to crack down on piracy and intellectual property theft, both online and offline.
Anhui province in east China shut down seven websites that allegedly contained pirated content and 53 websites that offered pornographic content or violent online games in March, according to the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) in Beijing.
According to the GAPP, investigators in Hefei, the capital of Anhui, discovered a live sex website operating in Hefei and investigations in the provinces of Guangdong and Hubei have also lead to multiple website closures and arrests, mostly on piracy charges.
Authorities in Beijing said China is “determined to protect copyright” and will “continue its efforts to fight against porn and piracy,” according to reports from the state-run news agency Xinhua.
