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No More Cybercafe Licences For China
Crackdown required to reduce to harm to young people,
say officials
Citing the need to reduce the potential for harm to young people,
Chinese officials will not license any more Internet cafes this
year while regulators carry out an industry-wide inspection.
Investigators will look into whether Internet cafes are improperly
renting out their licenses or failing to register their customers'
identities, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce said
on its Web site.
"Industry and commerce bureaus at all levels must not license
any new Internet cafes in 2007," said a Chinese government
notice, dated May 30.
The communist government encourages Web use for business and education,
but authorities are worried it gives children access to violent
games, sexually explicit material and gambling Web sites, reports
Associated Press.
Chinese President Hu Jintao has ordered Chinese authorities to
clean up "Internet culture," and the government has launched
a crackdown on online pornography involving thousands of police
officials that has resulted in over 50 000 sites being inspected
and more than 8 000 links to pornographic sites being blocked. Police
officers in the Guangdong provincial bureau of public security said
55 suspects involved in 43 cases had been detained, according to
reports in the Chinese Economic Net. More than 1 million yuan ($130
000) in cash had also been confiscated.
In a separate case, on May 27, police in Jieyang, in the eastern
part of Guangdong, broke up a major Internet soccer-betting ring,
detaining 28 suspects. Police raided 11 properties in Jieyang, Guangzhou
and Shenzhen, all of which were believed to be associated with the
gambling network.
Two sedan cars and 42 computers were seized.
Provincial spokesmen said police in the province would continue
the campaign to crack down on online crime for the remainder of
the year, and urged local people to refrain from visiting illegal
websites.
China has the world's second-largest population of Internet users,
with 137 million people online, and is on track to surpass the United
States as the largest online population within the next two years,
Associated Press reports. The government tries to block access to
online material deemed obscene or subversive.
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