Beijing bans porn on cell phones
Beijingers who send pornographic text messages or pictures on their cell phones may face fines up to 3,000 yuan ($385) and two weeks in administrative detention.
Beijingers who send pornographic text messages or pictures on their cell phones may face fines up to 3,000 yuan ($385) and two weeks in administrative detention, the local public security department warned.
According to China's criminal law and the law on public security administration those selling porn content can face jail terms between six months and three years.
Over the past three weeks, Beijing police have arrested 19 cell phone dealers found selling mass storage devices containing pornographic pictures or films.
The mass storage chips, which can hold a 60 minute-long film, were being sold for only five or six yuan ($0.64 to 0.77) each, a spokesman of Beijing Public Security Bureau said.
He said Beijing police were continuing their crackdown on cyber porn sales. "It's also illegal to download pornographic content from the Internet or to forward it to friends."
The severest penalty in such cases would be 10 to 15 days in detention plus a fine up to 3,000 yuan, he said.
China has 461 million cell phone subscribers and 137 million people online, the world's second-largest number of Internet users after the US.