CHINA — Chinese government authorities have punished the operators of 348 websites for running “pornographic novels” online, state media reported this week.While the government’s Xinhua news agency is not giving the exact number, a number of the websites have been shut down.

Publishing pornographic material online “causes great harm to the psychological development of young people,” Xinhua said in a public statement. Operating a sexually-oriented adult site is in violation of the country’s laws.

Chinese authorities announced this year a new six-month campaign to purge the country’s internet of pornography, promising to close the country’s online sex shows and sexually explicit VOD. As of May of this year, the police had arrested 270 people in connection with online pornography, Xinhua said.