BEIJING, Mar 3 (AP) -- China closed 47,000 Internet cafes over a 10-month period last year in a campaign aimed at creating a more wholesome environment for children, a news report said Thursday.

China'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 last year's February-December crackdown had been "admitting minors and engaged in dissemination of harmful cultural information," the Communist Party newspaper People's Daily said on its Web site.

It said the crackdown "aims to create a more wholesome and safer environment for minors."

About 21,000 of the closed cafes might be allowed to reopen after making unspecified changes, the newspaper said, citing the Ministry of Culture. It said the business licenses of 2,131 were revoked.

The report did not say what penalties the operators of the closed cafes might face, or give any other details.

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 Web sites deemed pornographic, and fined Internet cafe operators a total of 100 million yuan (US$12 million) for letting children play violent games.