China Said to Close 1,800 Porn Sites In A Year

Since launching a crackdown on Internet porn a year ago, China is said to have shut down more than 1,800 adult websites.

That's the word from China's official online reporting center, whose director Liu Zhengrong said had received 143,000 reports on porn or other "illegal" content since the site launched a year ago.

An estimated 67.5 percent of those reports tied to porn sites, 4.4 percent to "cults," and 3.4 to "online grift," Liu told the Chinese news agency Xinhua.

The center transferred 1,878 related reports to China's public security and judicial departments, including 1,264 involving Internet porn and 307 involving online gambling.

The center is also offering rewards between 500 and 2,000 yuan (about $61to $242 U.S.) to encourage even more reports from Chinese citizens.