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Bars net youngsters
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Han Ximin
WANG LI (not his real name) recently wrote a letter to the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily complaining about the harm to young people caused by illegal Internet bars.
Living in the 19th District of Bao'an District, Wang received a phone call from his son, a Junior One student, telling her that his friend, also a Junior One grader, was detained by an Internet bar owner for failing to pay nearly 100 yuan in net surfing charges. As a close friend to the boy's parents, Wang hurried to the net bar to pay the bill and take the boy home.
The boy's parents, owners of a fast-food restaurant, have no time to take care of the lad. They once told Wang that their restaurant's spare change sometimes disappears. To find the underlying cause of the situation the boy's mother followed the boy after he got up at 5am and saw him take the money in question. She was very angry and disappointed that her son never mentioned this to her. In fact, she was so upset that she swore to the boy that she would not took care of him anymore.
Wang was very familiar with the locations of Internet bars in the area for she had frequently visited them to find her son and other neighbourhood children. “As far as I know, most of the bars, in which 90 per cent of the customers are students, were illegal and without the approval of related departments," she told the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily. “They are just another version of video game arcades," said Wang.
In another part of town, Wang Wei's mother, Liu Ying, considered her son very lucky, as he was admitted to one of the top schools in Shenzhen last year. He pleased his parents by ranking among the top 10 students in the mid-term exams. Yet, by the end of the year he had fallen to the bottom of the list. Liu was puzzled and later was accidentally informed by Wang Wei's classmate that her son had become obsessed with online computer games, and for months had been going to nearby Internet bars every day after school. Liu's efforts to change her son's lifestyle failed, so with nowhere left to turn she resorted to the media to let more people know of the effect on her son, and the children of other parents, of what she calls “electronic heroin". She hopes her efforts will stir interest in the issue, and motivate people to protect the city's young people.
Actual situation
During the May Day holiday and the weekends, this reporter paid visits to several Internet bars in the city.
Crammed in a 20 square-metre room with over 20 computers, the Wonderland Internet Bar on the second floor of the Nanshan District Sports and Recreation Centre was crowded during the holidays. There are four other similar bars nearby, with names like Moonlight and Double-head Horse. Over half the visitors were teenagers and students in school uniforms. Though government regulations clearly stipulate that these bars should not allow children to access violent or pornographic websites, Li, who works for the bar, said in practice the customers access whichever sites they want. He encouraged the reporter to buy a membership card, which, he says, would save a lot of money.
According to statistics from the city's industry and commerce administration department, there are nearly 400 Internet bars in Shenzhen, of which only 80 have licences.
A random survey of 350 local students from Primary Three to Junior Two by Source Market Research and Consultant Shenzhen Co showed nearly 60 per cent of the students had surfed the Internet and 40 per cent regarded it as one of their main extra-curricula activities.
The survey also found that senior high school students spent less time on the Internet due to their comparatively heavy study burdens. Junior students, though, spent an average of 41 minutes a day online, or about a quarter of their extra-curricula activities. The Internet's popularity rate among these students is 29.3 per cent, ranking third behind watching TV (81.1 per cent) and sports (66.3 per cent).
Over 40 per cent of families in Shenzhen have computers, 27 per cent higher than the national average. Nearly 20 per cent of students regularly visit Internet bars.
Of particular concern is the fact that 60 per cent of students think that the main use of the Internet is for chatting, and 42.5 per cent think it is a good tool to meet friends.
The results of telephone interviews with some students are nothing short of astonishing.
Lin Xun, a Junior Three student at Nantou Middle School, frequently visits Internet bars and admits that he only plays online computer games with friends. The real allure of Internet bars is the simple fact that it allows him some freedom, and escape from the control of his parents.
“Lucrative profit is the main reason for the existence of underground Internet bars," said Wang Li. The investment for a medium-sized Internet bar, say with 20 computers, is around 150,000 yuan (US$18,000) including rent and fees. The current surfing charge on average is six yuan per hour. The owner can expect to turn a profit within six months.
Problems and harm
Yet not all the bars are attracting visitors with illegal services. The Sunshine Net Bar, which is only two blocks away from the sport centre, is a member of the Shenzhen Information Association. When visiting the place on a late evening during the May Day holiday, its appropriate environment attracted this reporter. Shen Zhen, a girl who plans to study abroad, had downloaded English learning information from the website of New Oriental English Training Centre, a famous English training centre in Beijing. “The number of appropriate Internet bars is too limited while the underground illegal bars can be seen everywhere," said Shen, adding the situation will certainly tarnish the city's image.
Though the income may be reduced with the exclusion of students, the manager Wang Zhan said legal operation is the right way to go. This law-abiding Internet bar was seen as boring by some students. Lin Xun once visited the place and was disappointed that computer games are not allowed in the place.
As a newly emerging industry, Internet bars sprouted up in China's major cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Wuhan in late 1998. The bars, though, brought with them problems that parents were not used to dealing with. According to a survey on 3,000 students in schools and universities by Zhengzhou Round Point Market Research Co in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, 46 per cent of the students interviewed visited pornographic websites, 76 per cent are fond of chatting and 35 per cent played games online. Less than 20 per cent of them surf for information.
“The managerial staff of Internet bars are short of professional skills and their awareness of the law and network safety should be strengthened," said Wang Zhan. Most Internet bars have no supervisors as required by law and visitors can access anything they want.
Most parents interviewed condemned the illegal Internet bars. The virtual world has irresistible charm to children, who are active in thinking, hungry for new things and lack self-control. Parents believe that once their children are trapped in chat rooms, games and pornographic websites, their way of thinking will be separated from reality. Indulging in computer games and talking to strangers in chat rooms will lead their kids into a world of fantasy and day-dreaming.
Dr Yang Zhiwei of the Children's Centre at Shenzhen Kangning Hospital says indulging in the Internet will increase children's dependence on the virtual world. Once this psychological dependency forms, kids will lose interest in study and other activities.
“While condemning illegal Internet bars, we should objectively judge their positive effects in popularizing information, especially in townships and rural areas. The key issue is how to regulate and guide the operations of these bars," said Yang.
It was said that related government departments including culture, industrial and commercial administration, and public security bureaux have launched a three-month campaign to regulate the Internet bar industry and shut down illegal bars.
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