China: internet to blame for crime increase

China has always imposed strict censorship on internet access, and things are about to get even more extreme.

Chinese authorities have blamed crime rates within the country on the 'harmful influences' of the internet. The Chinese government has recently cracked down hard on the liberalism of online pornography and fraud.

"In recent years from the cases we have discovered, the proportion of young people guilty of cheating, rape or robbery who are given to using the internet or have been corrupted by online filth, is very high," police spokesman Wu Heping said.

"Our preliminary figures for arrested youth criminals is that almost 80 per cent of them have been seduced by the internet. It makes people very pained to know that crimes are committed by people corrupted by obscene pictures and images."

China has always had strict laws against the production of internet pornography. Only last year, the man who founded China's biggest porn site was sentenced to life in prison as punishment for creating the site.

The communist country has censored these porn sites as well as online lotteries and gossip sites to shield the many millions of young internet users from "negative online influences".

"The public security system will uphold the law during this campaign and also take tips from the public to clean up the pure space of the internet," said Heping.

James Rivington

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