Film and television programmes featuring one-night stands, adultery, supernatural occurrences and gambling will be banned from Chinese streaming websites in the latest fallout from Beijing’s continuing moral crackdown, reports the Global Times.

US streaming sites such as Netflix and Amazon Prime are unavailable in China due to the country’s firewall. However, local sites such as Sohu, which recently saw Netflix’s salacious political drama House of Cards find a niche audience, would be expect to suffer under the effects of the ban. In a statement to content providers, authorities also demanded the removal of content featuring depictions of sexual abuse, rape, polyamorous relationships, necrophilia, prostitution and masturbation. Violent murder, suicides, drug use and gambling were also among the subjects banned via the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) circular, as well as instances of pornography.

Prof Tan Tian of Jinan university told the Times the new regulations would radically reduce the number of movies and television shows that could be legally streamed in China.

“Media regulators used to have loose regulations on [these] programmes, so that the public is often exposed to contents related to sex, violence and murder,” he said. He warned that the crackdown might hamper the creation of high-quality content in China’s burgeoning creative industries.

In April, China launched a government campaign against pornography and vulgar content titled “Cleaning the Web 2014”, which has so far seen the closing of 110 websites. Chinese stars with a history of drug use or involvement with prostitution have also been banned from appearing on film or television.

The Chinese moral crackdown has seen a number of celebrities affected. In September, Jackie Chan’s son, Jaycee, was arrested for allegedly smoking marijuana at his apartment. The actor Huang Haibo and director Wang Quan’an were arrested in May and September respectively on suspicion of having sex with prostitutes.

It is not known if China’s ban on adult content from streaming sites will affect Hollywood studios desperate to take advantage of rapidly growing box-office returns in the world’s most populous nation. China’s annual import quota of 34 international movies is already subject to tight controls from censors.

Last year authorities rejected a cut of the Brad Pitt zombie apocalypse movie World War Z, adding to the financial pressures on a film that had already seen its budget balloon to a reported $200m. Critics fear that the Chinese government’s sensibilities could radically infect the types of big budget movies which studios are prepared to put into production in future.