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Porn chat room operators jailed

By Liang Qiwen (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-05-21 08:02

ZHUHAI, Guangdong: Five members of a gang who operated "sex chat rooms" on the Internet from here were sentenced to two to four years in prison, the Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis Daily reported Wednesday.

One of those sentenced is a college graduate, Li Wei, who managed the network. Li, it was alleged, made over 120,000 yuan ($17,600) and was sentenced to two years behind bars with three years' probation, which simply means no time in prison if he stays clean for three years.

The Xiangzhou district court here ruled Li, 28, was just an "accessory to the crime".

The leader of the gang Li Xun, who hails from Taiwan, was sentenced to four years in prison.

According to the court, Li Xun acted as an agent for "several Taiwan-based porn chat websites" and started running his business in Zhuhai since the beginning of 2005.

He recruited a number of assistants, who worked as "managers and financial staff" for the operation.

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The assistants recruited girls from across the country to log on to the chat rooms and indulge in sex chats with men, who had to pay a certain amount to enter the rooms.

The whole network was raising "hundreds of thousands of yuan" a day, according to the accusation.

Most of the network's clients were Taiwan-based men, said a report in the Southern China Metropolis Daily.

The paying clients were given the liberty to voice chat with the girls. They were charged anywhere between 1 Taiwan dollar (a quarter of a yuan) to 20 Taiwan dollars for every minute of the conversation.

The girls, who tried their best to stretch the conversations as long as possible, at times even exposed their bodies on webcams.

The Zhuhai police busted the network last March, arresting Li Xun, Li Wei, along with three other assistants and five "chat girls".

The cops believe there are many girls across the country working for such networks on the sly to make a quick extra buck.

"Most such networks cooperate with overseas porn websites so that the servers of the networks are set up outside the Chinese mainland," said Lu Feilong, the manager of a Guangzhou-based Internet firm. "Even if the police manage crack the networks in the mainland, the big fish sitting overseas can still operate the websites and will sooner or later build up new networks in China," he said.