Pornography in China

In China, producing, disseminating, or selling sexually explicit material may be sentenced to life imprisonment because pornography is strictly prohibited under Chinese criminal law. But while forbidding porn is one thing, actually eliminating it is quite different, especially when users have social media, cloud services, and new payment methods at their arrangement. Although an continuous suppression against "spiritual pollution", as the Communist party once called it in Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign,[1] porn is still living well on China’s internet.[2]

Censors have closed down many services in recent years, but in a ongoing game of cat and mouse, providers and users have found other ways to share adult content, whether it’s self-made or pirated from other pornographic film studios. Indeed the development of the nation’s online porn industry reflects the overall development of China’s intranet, as it's often jokingly called tightly controlled, censored internet.[3]

Phases and forms of development

Porn portals: 2004-2006

Porn portals flourished in China even before sites like YouPorn and Pornhub rose up in the West. The year 2004 saw the birth of a few big (albeit ill-fated) services in the country, including 99 Erotica Forum and Erotica Juneday. Some such sites are still remain, but many have disappeared. The business model for these services in China is quite simple. Before visitors can watch or download the porn they want, they must navigate through pay-per-click advertisements hawking sex toys, Viagra-esque pills, and online casinos. The sites typically offer a mix of domestic amateur videos and pirated content from Japan, Europe and the US. They typically set up their servers overseas and frequently change their URLs to avoid being spotted by authorities.

For users, these services with such advertisements can make them uncomfortable and frustrated. Sometimes no content awaits them after they navigate through ads, and regardless the odds of picking up malware along the way are high. Therefore, reputable services in China tend to charge a membership fee and in return offer greater reliability and fewer or no ads. But in China, the use of domestic bank accounts makes such sites vulnerable to crackdown. 99 Erotica was among the first to fall after having garnered more than 300,000 registered users within a year of its launch. In 2005 authorities sentenced its 11 workers, among them teachers and civil servants, to jail time ranging from three to 12 years for disseminating obscene material. In October 2006 authorities close down Erotica Juneday, which charged its VIP members 3,999 yuan (then around $490) a year, and sentenced founder Chen Hui to life in prison.[4] Forthright sociologist Li Yinhe was among those who assaulted against the harsh sentence. She called on authorities to either repeal the pornography laws in China or stop pretending the nation enjoys freedom of expression.

References

  1. ↑ Barmé, Geremie R (17 November 2013). "Spiritual Pollution Thirty Years On". Australian Centre on China in the World - 中华全球研究中心/中華全球研究中心. Retrieved 28 July 2018.
  2. ↑ KIM WALL (6 June 2013). "Sex and the Law in China: 'The People Will Pull, and the Government Will Follow'". China: The Atlantic. Retrieved 2018-07-28.
  3. ↑ France, Agence (1 July 2015). "China passes new national security law extending control over internet". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-07-28.
  4. ↑ "央视《焦点访谈》：捣毁"情色六月天"". CCTV.com (in Chinese). 中央电视台 - CCTV. 20 December 2006. Retrieved 2018-07-23.
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