BEIJING - China will launch a half-year-long special campaign to crack down on the spread of pornographic and vulgar information through the Internet and mobile phones.

The campaign, to be carried out by the country's nine government agencies including the State Internet Information Office, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, will run from the start of March till the end of August, according to a statement issued at a working conference on Monday.

During his speech at the conference, Wang Chen, head of the State Internet Information Office, called for efforts to cut off the profit chain for the spreading of the pornographic and vulgar contents and to purify the environment of the Internet and the mobile media.

Illegal websites, microblogs and online accounts that violated relevant laws and regulations should be closed and the violators should be punished, the conference statement said.

The campaign will also target advertisers who use the violating websites to disseminate their messages as well as the telecommunication companies that provide access services for the websites, the statement said.

The statement also encouraged the public to report violations.