china arrested over 5,000 people and shut down about 9,000 illegal porn-related sites in 2009. as part of its latest campaign to weed out internet pornography, the government has vowed to continue its strict censorship this year by banning sites that ‘harm public morality’. authorities went as far as offering rewards of up to $1,400 to internet users that report sites containing pornographic and violent content.

purifying the internet environment and cracking down on internet crimes is related to long-term state security, said the ministry.

internet use has expanded at a dazzling rate with an estimated 360 million internet users (reuters) – the largest online population in the world.  

other popular social networking sites such as youtube, twitter, facebook and flickr have also been banned and can only be accessed by using proxy servers.

although the chinese government claims that this internet sweep is to protect the emotional health of children which is currently being threatened, critics say that the crackdown is a ploy to strengthen the censorship of political views that are expressed through the internet and that it is as much about taking control over new media as it is about annihilating internet pornography.

what do you think? is this a good thing or is it a violation of rights? post your comments.

[image credit: wsj]