TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: China Closes 1,600 Internet Cafes in Crackdown


China Closes 1,600 Internet Cafes in Crackdown


Lisa Minter (lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com)
Sun, 31 Oct 2004 17:23:20 -0600

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=3Dstory&u=3D/nm/20041031/wr_nm/chin=
a_internet_crackdown_dc=20

BEIJING (Reuters) - China shut 1,600 Internet cafes between February
and August and imposed $12.1 million worth of fines for allowing
children to play violent or adult-only games and other violations,
state media said.

Of 1.8 million Internet bars inspected, 18,000 were ordered "to stop
operation for rectification," Xinhua news agency quoted Zhang Xinjian,
deputy director of the Culture Ministry's market department, as
saying.

"Porn, gambling, violence and similar problems have
adversely affected the healthy development of the Internet in China,"
Zhang was quoted as saying.

The crackdown comes amid a nationwide push to limit violence
and pornography on the Internet that has seen the government shut down
hundreds of Web sites it deemed unsavory.

China has some 87 million Internet users, over 50 percent of whom are
under 24 and approximately 18 percent are minors.

*** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the
use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without
profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the
understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic
issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I
believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material
as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish
to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go
beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright
owner, in this instance Reuters News Service.

For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

Post Followup Article Use your browser's quoting feature to quote article into reply
Go to Next message: Lisa Minter: "Companies Scramble to Deal With Spyware"
Go to Previous message: Lisa Minter: "Smart Web to Usher in Host of New Services-Gartner"
TELECOM Digest: Home Page