China has closed 47,000 internet cafes in a campaign aimed at creating a more "wholesome environment" for children.
The country’s leaders encourage internet use for business and education, but have expressed growing concern that it gives children access to violent or sexually explicit material, and have tried to block online criticism of their Communist rule.
The cafes closed in the crackdown had been "admitting minors and engaged in dissemination of harmful cultural information", the Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily said on its website.
About 21,000 of the closed cafes might be allowed to reopen after making unspecified changes. It said the business licences of 2131 were revoked.
China has the world’s second-largest number of internet users after the United States, with 87 million people online.
The government said in October that it had detained 445 people for operating websites deemed pornographic, and fined internet cafe operators a total of 100 million yuan (£6.2 million) for letting children play violent games.
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