CHINA has shut down 97 phone sex lines and arrested an unspecified number of people since July 2004, when it launched a nationwide crackdown on the dial-up service. Some 700 phone service operators were investigated, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Suspects in China's northern Jilin province and central Hubei province were arrested for offering overseas phone sex services, it said. It did not specify the countries involved.

The crackdown is part of a massive anti-smut campaign that has mainly targeted internet porn. Authorities have closed thousands of internet cafes, stepped up surveillance and fortified filters aimed at shutting out objectionable material - including criticism of the Communist government. The government has also increased the penalties for those who make or distribute pornographic materials via the internet or mobile phones, with some offences resulting in life in prison. China's phone services industry brought in about 1.57 billion yuan ($250.07 million) in 2003 and employed some 15,000 people, it said. "With the rapid development of the paid call service market in China, some lawbreakers make use of this form to spread obscene information and even conduct prostitution," Information Industry Minister Wang Xudong was quoted as saying. "This depraves social morals, and especially brings great harm to the country's young minds." The Associated Press{jcomments on}