China jails four for running mucky site

Porn clampdown continues

By Tim Richardson • Get more from this author

Posted in Music and Media, 15th October 2004 11:29 GMT

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Four men have been jailed for peddling porn as China continues to wage its war against online smut. The four men - Liang Hongbin, Li Yufei, Yu Jianhong, and Chen Dong who are all in their twenties - have been jailed for between 12 months and two-and-a-half years.

According to state media, the men rang up a profit of 16,000 yuan (£1,070) during the couple of months their site was online. During that time it attracted some 16,000 hits as punters paid to watch mucky movies.

Ever since China began tough line on porn in the summer, some 445 people have been arrested and 1,125 web sites have been shut down. What's more, officials have handed out around 2,000 yuan (£133) in rewards to people snitching on illegal sites. Last month a 22-year-old Chinese computer student known only by his surname Xie was jailed for four years for running a porn site.

Earier, Wang Yanli was jailed for four years for running an online strip joint. She is believed to be the first woman to be banged up behind bars, following China's tough new stand against internet pornography.

China's XXX clampdown is meant to halt the "rampant" increase in online porn that the Government believes is damaging the moral fabric of the nation - and young people in particular. One official said that porn "severely damaged social style, polluted the social environment, and harmed the physical and psychological health of the young people". ®