Police here have arrested more than 10 people for distributing photos online of Chinese actor and rapper Edison Chen, whose laptop was stolen after he brought his computer in for repairs.
More than 1,300 photos of Chen engaging in sex with numerous women have spread online in the past few weeks, particularly in mainland China, where an intensified effort by Beijing to crack down on online porn is targeting web surfers.
For years Chinese officials have exerted technical control over much of the Internet on the mainland, but photo sharing by email is still rampant.
As police continue to make arrests, the sex photos have traveled far past China, reaching Singapore and Malaysia. The photos first surfaced in Hong Kong chat forums in late January, just before the Lunar New Year.
The sex photos include Chen with Hong Kong actress Cecilia Cheung and singer Gillian Chung of the teen-pop group Twins.
Chen on Wednesday faced reporters for the first time since the scandal broke and admitted to having taken most of the photos. "I have failed as a role model," he said.
Chen said he was cooperating with a Hong Kong police probe into how the images got from his personal computer to the Internet.
On Thursday, Xinhua, the state news media, said that officials are detaining anyone caught with the material, including those who have posted it to blogs.
