China cracks down on college campus porn sites

People use computers at an Internet cafe in Suining, southwest China's Sichuan province in this January 11, 2007 file photo. A Chinese campaign to clean up online pornography has reached college campuses with the Education Ministry lashing out at some school Web sites for making money from porn.

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese campaign to clean up online pornography has reached college campuses with the Education Ministry lashing out at some school Web sites 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 was quoted as saying.

"Students are easily influenced and perverted by such information as they are still in their formative years and do not have a solid hold on their values."

Xinhua did not elaborate on how the college Web sites were run or what they contained.

The Ministry of Public Security and nine other government departments launched a six-month campaign in April to crack down on illegal online activities such as distributing pornographic materials and organizing cyber strip shows.

"The campaign hopes to purge the web of sexually explicit images, stories and audio and video clips," Xinhua said.

By mid-May, Chinese police had cracked 244 cases and detained 270 suspects involved in online pornography.