China: Proposed regulations on Internet Cafes

This year, members of the National People's Congress (NPC) and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) have put forward a number of suggestions regarding legislation on regulation of Internet Cafes.

Government run internet cafes

According to local media report, CPPCC members Yan Qi suggested the government to run internet cafes and shut down the illegal ones. She is concerned the negative impact of Internet cafes to children.

Her suggestion is back up by Tao Hongkai, an university professor on education and sociology who has introduced the concept of “Internet addiction” in China. He points out that 92% of the youth goes to internet cafes for playing online game. The ratio of good to harm regarding the existence of Internet Cafes is 1:9 and hence he supports the shutting of all private run internet cafes.

Zero-hour cutoff

Also concerned with the Internet addiction problem, NPC representative Gao Wanneng suggested legislation to close internet cafes between midnight and 8 a.m. Don Weinland has written a post about the Zero-hour cutoff at Globalvocies:

This is not the first time a nighttime ban on internet cafes has been suggested. In Nov. of 2005 the municipality of Chongqing experienced slowly implemented “zero-hour cutoff” policy, as have other cities around the country.

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