China to punish 36 online games operators for porn, abetment

BEIJING -- China's Ministry of Culture (MOC) said Monday that it will punish 36 online games operators for disseminating pornography, aiding and abetting, and gambling.

The MOC began inspection of the online games market in September in Beijing, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other cities.

From the random checking of 200 games operators, 36 were found to provide games with illegal content, such as pornography and gambling, as well as contents abetting to crimes and offending social morality.

The MOC urged the 36 operators to cooperate with law enforcers and learn from their mistakes.

The MOC will continue random inspections, disclose inspection results in a timely manner, and better publicize relevant rules and regulations.

China's online games industry has increased by 30 percent for nine consecutive years in terms of its annual output value, and gave birth to the world's largest online games company in terms of revenue.

However, some online games have poor social values, and are low quality, Chen Tong, director of the cultural market department of the MOC, said at a press briefing on Monday, calling on online games to propagate socialist core values.