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Cyber cafes face new curbs
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CHINA plans to impose a three-month ban on the opening of new cyber cafes as part of a major offensive against unchecked use of the Internet, the Xinhua News Agency said on Saturday.
The agency said authorities are to conduct a massive probe into existing Internet outlets and other areas providing Internet service.
“We cannot neglect the influence of the Internet on teenagers' growth and social development," Minister of Information Industry Wu Jichuan was quoted as saying.
Scores of teenagers are addicted to the Internet, “indulging" themselves in online games, chatrooms and pornography, Xinhua added.
It said that all Internet cafes would be asked to re-register while those without legal certificates would be shut down.
The number of Internet users in China has risen hugely in recent years, with some 22.5 million people logging on last year, a 153 per cent increase from 1999, according to government figures.
China has imposed tough legal controls over content on websites. These include regulations passed last year prohibiting subjects as wide-ranging as rumours, slander and “harmful information".
Last year authorities in Shanghai closed 500 computer parlours and over 100 Internet bars as part of a national campaign against illegal entertainment.
And in Guangzhou, more than 1,500 video game arcades were closed down out of concerns about their negative influence on young people.(SD-Agencies)
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