YNOT EUROPE – China claims it closed about 60,000 domestic porn sites in 2010.

Although Chinese officials admit the effort required extreme dedication, government employees also checked the contents of 1.79 million websites and blocked 350 million pages found to contain “pornographic and vulgar” material, primarily images and video clips. Chinese citizens who created or contributed to any of the sites face heavy fines and up to five years in prison.

“Our campaign was a great success, which was not easily won,” said Wang Chen, head of the State Council Information Office. “We have made the internet environment much cleaner than before, when there was a lot of pornography available. We changed the situation, and it was well received by many sectors of society. But our campaign is not over yet. It will be a long battle.”