China steps up crackdown on illegal online games

BEIJING - China's cultural authorities have stepped up a crackdown on illegal online games involving gambling, lewd or violent content, said a press release issued by the Ministry of Culture Tuesday.

A total of 12 vulgar online games had been banned so far, and about 100 businesses had been punished or closed for violating laws or regulations on Internet games, including the spread of lewd or violent content, unauthorized operation of online games, and employment of cheating tools and unauthorized game servers, the statement said.

About 30 violations of online games regulations on virtual money had been dealt with after being reported by the public, the statement said.

The government unveiled a regulation in June 2009 to ban the use of virtual currency in the trade of real goods and services, and the use of virtual currency for gambling or money laundering.

Violations of the virtual currency regulation would be the focus of the ministry's crackdown in the next stage, the statement said.

Source: China Daily