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.

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