Crackdown to target teaching materials piracy

The office of the national working group for combating pornographic and illegal publications is stepping up a crackdown on pirated teaching materials and harmful online content to ensure students have a healthy learning environment.

The office said on Monday that it has launched an operation to target infringing and pirated teaching materials after extensive efforts to rectify the cultural market during the July-August summer vacation.

The operation will focus on rectifying the cultural market around campuses, cleaning up harmful online content and preventing minors from overindulging on the internet, it said.

By the end of this month, related authorities nationwide will strengthen checks on bookstores and online stores that sell primary and secondary school teaching materials, and step up the investigation of the printing and distribution of textbooks, dictionaries, guidebooks and other publications to prevent pirated teaching materials from flowing into campuses.

The investigators will also inspect bookstores, copy and typing shops, stationery and toy shops and recreational venues. They will focus on checking the merchants' business qualifications for publications and whether there is any harmful information, including pornographic, violent and unhealthy information, in publications and videos.

Illegal publications and harmful content will be disposed of in strict accordance with the law, the office said.

Authorities strengthened supervision of the online and offline cultural market over the summer vacation. In the past two months around the nation they confiscated 523,000 illegal publications for children and removed 126,000 pieces of harmful information online.

They also handled 177 cases of copyright infringement and piracy and resolved several cases related to pornographic information that involved minors, the office said.

To thoroughly clean up harmful online content that is tempting for minors, the anti-pornography authority will work with cyberspace administration and law enforcement departments to strengthen online inspections and deal with harmful content in a timely manner.

Anti-pornography authorities nationwide have been urged to take the initiative to integrate education about internet safety, the prevention of campus bullying and sexual assault, resistance to harmful information and culture and the prevention of internet addiction into their work, guiding minors to improve their awareness of safety and their ability to protect themselves.