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China’s government censors have taken fresh aim at the Internet, rolling out new measures that limit ordinary citizens’ ability to set up personal Web sites and to view hundreds of other Web sites offering films, video games and other forms of entertainment.

The authorities say that the stricter controls are intended to protect children from pornography, to limit the piracy of films, music, and television shows, and to make it hard to perpetuate Internet scams. But the measures also appear designed to enhance the government’s already strict control of any organized political opposition.

In various pronouncements, top propaganda and security officials have stressed anew the need to police the Internet on ideological and security grounds.

The “Internet has become an important avenue through which anti-China forces infiltrate, sabotage and magnify their capabilities for destruction,” wrote the public security minister, Meng Jianzhu, in the Dec. 1 issue of Qiushi, a magazine published by the Communist Party’s Central Committee.

“Therefore it represents a new challenge to the public security authority in maintaining national security and social stability,” he said.

The newly announced restrictions are the government’s broadest effort to control the Internet since last June, when it tried to require manufacturers to install Internet filtering software on all new computers, experts said. Officials scaled back that program, known as the Green Dam-Youth Escort, after an outcry by both ordinary Internet users and corporations.

Under the new initiative, unveiled piecemeal over the past month, more than 700 Web sites have been shut down, including many that offered free movie, television dramas and music downloads. Included was BT China, which recorded at least 250,000 visits daily. China’s largest file-sharing site, Very CD, must obtain a new license or face possible shutdown as well, according to media reports.

Individuals have also been banned from registering Web sites ending in .cn, China’s country code domain name. That domain is now limited to registered businesses. Although individuals can still register Web sites in other domains, such as .com and .net, the new rule “will have a negative impact on the vibrancy of the Chinese Internet,” Kenneth Jarrett, vice chairman of the communications firm APCO Worldwide’s China region, said in an e-mail message.

“Local e-mail e-commerce startups and individuals will find it difficult to apply,” he wrote.

Huang Xiwei, the founder of BT China, criticized the move in an interview posted on Sina.com, a popular Chinese Internet portal. “Not just film and video sites are affected,” Mr. Huang said in the interview. “All websites owned by individuals will gradually exit the arena. All paths leading to a future have been blocked.”

The government has also intensified pressure on cellphone companies to prevent transmissions on online pornography. In response, China Mobile, the nation’s largest cellphone operator, has suspended its practice of paying third party providers for content downloaded over its cellular network, according to the Chinese media. Industry specialists said the disruption has dealt a blow to an industry that serves an estimated nearly 200 million mobile Internet users.

Experts say the latest measures are a continuation of the state’s increasingly sophisticated effort to control the Internet’s influence on more than 300 million Chinese users. Earlier this year, China blocked Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and thousands of other Web sites.

Some analysts predicted those restrictions were temporary and would be lifted after a spate of sensitive anniversaries, including the 20th anniversary of the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square. But they have remained in place.

“The trend in China is toward tighter and tighter control,” said Rebecca MacKinnon, an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Hong Kong who specializes in Chinese Internet issues. “They are basically improving their censorship mechanisms.”

Reaction to the government’s latest crackdown runs the gamut from enthusiastic support from Chinese parents who want to shield their children from pornography to harsh criticism from those who view the Internet as the best antidote to government propaganda and state-controlled media.

As in other countries, Ms. MacKinnon said, “there is a segment of Chinese society that is very freaked out about what is going on the Internet and want the government to do something.”

On the other end of the spectrum are college students who are accustomed to downloading music, films and other material easily and cheaply. “The government’s actions have affected their lifestyles,” said Professor Hu Yong at Peking University in Beijing. “So it is likely they would react in a big way.”

In interviews, students at Beijing universities described the new measures as unnecessary and bound to be ineffective. They noted that pirated CDs were ubiquitous in Beijing and predicted that Internet users would find ways around the new online obstacles.

Still, Wang Shuang, a 20-year-old student at Beijing Foreign Studies University, complained, “Since the BT was closed, I cannot find all the American television series that I have been watching, like ‘The Mentalist.’ ”

Zeng Li, a third-year architecture student at Tsinghua University, said his studies were suffering. “I often use BT Web sites to download foreign resources which are rarely available in China, like architectural design materials,” he said.

He is also deprived of one way to relax, he said, because he can no longer go to the BT sites to download movies banned in China. “The shutdown has had a great influence on me,” he said.