Chinese cybercafes dubbed 'electronic heroin'

[Paul Howell]

At http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/1/11480.html


Chinese cybercafes dubbed 'electronic heroin'
By: Linda Harrison
Posted: 20/06/2000 at 17:04 GMT

Chinese officials have launched a fresh crackdown on cybercafes after a 
regulation banned them from operating within 200 metres of schools. 

Police in Xiamen, in China's Fujian province, have shut down 45 Internet cafes 
in the city, the South China Morning Post reported. Chinese kids were turning 
some of the establishments into PC games rooms, with parents and teachers 
dubbing the cybercafes "electronic heroin". 

Around 45 per cent of the cafes patrons were high-school students, and another 
35 per cent were youngsters who had left school, a survey found. Over half 
logged on to chat, 30 per cent to read newspapers online, and ten per cent to 
email and gain stocks and shares information. 

The police were quick to crack down on the dens of iniquity in Xiamen, and 
passed a regulation that no cybercafe could be set up nearer than 200 metres 
to a school. The city's Public Security Bureau insisted it must increase its 
role as an "Internet policeman". 

This is not the first time China has tried to control Internet cafe use. In 
February, Shanghai officials raided and shut down 127 unlicensed cybercafes - 
it claimed they "corrupt the minds of young people" and posed a threat to 
state secrets.