The Chinese government blocked 41 websites on Friday for containing porn and lewd content as part of a month long campaign to purify the Internet.

All the sites violated the top legislature's regulations and other laws regarding public distribution of sexual images, said a statement issued by the Special Operation Office for Crackdown on online Porn and Lewd Content.

China's State Council's Information Office, Public Security and Culture Ministries as well as four other government agencies launched the online pornography crackdown on Monday.

Public distribution of pornography is illegal in China. The government publicized two blacklists of websites and portals violating the country's Internet regulations this week.

China pledged to continue to expose, punish or even shut down websites which refuse to correct wrongdoings. According to the special operation office, the crackdown is part of a long-term effort to create a healthy environment for children.

So far, 19 Chinese Web sites, including search engine Google and Baidu, have posted online apologies after accusations of being slow to delete porn and lewd content or links to pornographic sites.

(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2009)