From September to November, Chinese public security authorities shut down 598 porn websites and wiped out 35 porn domain names, according to a news conference on Thursday.

All the porn websites that have been discovered in China as of today have been closed, announced Wu Heping, spokesman of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) at a news briefing on a nationwide campaign of cracking down on-line porn.

The clues of porn websites reported by the public every day have dropped to 9.4 from 14.1, most of which refer to foreign porn websites. And the clues of on-line video porn show have dropped to 2.1 from 13, he said.

With 2,700 reported cases in 2000 and 14,000 in 2004, on-line porn activities, gambling and fraud have become serious crimes in recent years and are still rising, said Wu.

More than 80 percent of the domestic computers were once infected by virus annually in recent years and the daily junk mails flowing to domestic users exceeds 60 million, making China a giant country of sending and receiving junk mails, he said.

Together with the Information Office of the State Council and the Ministry of Information Industry, the MPS launched a nationwide campaign on cracking down on Internet porn like on-line video chatting in September this year.
 
Meanwhile, the MPS announced that China is to carry out new Internet regulation starting from March 1, 2006 to prevent computer virus spreading, harmful junk e-mails and organized bawdry online activities.

The regulation specifies that Internet service-providers are obliged to safeguard the Internet security and the police should supervise all providers.

A series of Internet-based technologies including monitoring computer systems and recording such information as the logon time and the browsed websites are standardized according to the regulation.

The regulation also states that any online safeguarding technique should not be used to infringe upon the individuals' freedom and privacy and at least two members of the police should be at scene when inspecting suspects.

One MPS official said the public are encouraged to report any online activity violating laws or code of conducts through phones or an official websites net.china.cn.

(Xinhua News Agency December 30, 2005)