Roughly 600,000 registered members were cut off when police closed the sites, all of which offered erotic pictures, articles, movies and link exchanges with other adult content providers. Memberships costs on the sites ranged from $24 a year to $482 for lifetime access, police said.
All of the suspects, who police said were college students in their early twenties, used U.S.-based servers to run the sites in an attempt to evade Chinese censorship.
In June, police discovered a site called Qingse Liuyuetianor Erotic, which touted itself as “the first adult community for Chinese.” Investigation into the site discovered its founders were also operating three additional porn sites, Tianshang Renjian, Huaren Yidianyuan and Qingse Hai'anxian.
According to police reports published by Xinhua, investigators scoured seven provinces and municipalities over a five-month period in search of the suspects.
The campaign, directed by the Ministry of Public Security, is just the latest in China’s ongoing pornographic crackdown.
Late last October Chinese officials filed charges against 216 individuals for “arranging pornographic performances” online, opening a new front in the government’s ongoing crackdown on Internet adult entertainment.
Chinese law forbids the dissemination of explicit or hardcore materials of any kind, including those involving only consenting adults. The law considers such activities crimes against the people and the state.