People surf the Internet in Jinan
© AFP/File Frederic J BrownNew Delhi, May 29 (ANI): A Chinese campaign to clean up online pornography has reached college campuses with the Education Ministry lashing out at some school bulletin board systems (BBS) for making money from porn.
"We strongly condemn Web site hosts for making 'unlawful' money by distributing pornographic information," Vice-Minister of Education Li Weihong said.
Li was quoted by The China Daily as saying that the ministry would open a section on its website for the public to report on campus websites and is drafting guidelines to regulate campus Internet services.
She also called on college instructors to be Internet experts to "get to know the mentality of today's students from the net".
Media reports have said that nearly half of the 23 million minor Internet surfers in China visit porn websites.
A report from the Ministry of Public Security released over the weekend showed that the anti-porn campaign had shown results.
From April 12 - when the campaign started - to May 15, police authorities have blocked more than 4,800 porn websites and advertisements. Nearly 160,000 bits of online information, including 90,000 about pornography and others on illegal gambling and drug selling, have also been filtered during the period, the report shows.
Police also cracked 244 online porn crimes and caught more than 270 suspects by mid-May, according to the report.
The vice-minister also revealed that the government would assign more "virtual cops" to monitor and wipe out online porn. The experiment is confined to nine cities and the ministry said it planned to expand it to 100 cities. (ANI)