China launches ‘Cleaning the Web 2014′ campaign for a porn free web

China will launch a renewed campaign against the spread of pornography on the Internet, the national anti-porn agency announced on Sunday. The campaign ‘Cleaning the Web 2014′ will conduct thorough checkups on websites, search engines and mobile application stores, Internet TV USB sticks, and set-top boxes, the National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications said in a circular.

It said during the campaign, which will last until November of this year, online texts, videos, photos and advertisements with pornographic content will be erased.

"Porn has does great harm to minors and the social ethos," the circular said.

The office is just one of the four government agencies tasked in the campaign against the spread of pornography on the Internet. The other three agencies are the Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State Internet Information Office (SIIO).

Websites, telecom operators and web portals were asked to conduct a self-examination instantly and clean up information and links.

The campaign is in response to the persistent spread of pornography online despite multiple previous campaigns.

According to the report of Chinatopix, the national office has deleted more than 3.7 million pieces of information online that involved pornography in 2012. One person, who allegedly was a ringleader in Beijing, was meted 14 years imprisonment after he was found guilty of selling over 35,000 porno products.

Last year, the SIIO, one of the four agencies tasked against online pornography, said it has shut down 274 websites due to their involvement in pornography and violent contents.

Authorities ordered the closure of the website because aside from spreading pornographic content and violence, there were also those that spread false medical information.

The closure of the websites was carried out during the mid-July campaign launched by several government agencies to crack down on pornography, violence, and illegal activities in Chinese websites.