No More Cybercafe Licences For China

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Crackdown required to reduce to harm to young people, say officials

Citing the need to reduce the potential for harm to young people, Chinese officials will not license any more Internet cafes this year while regulators carry out an industry-wide inspection.

Investigators will look into whether Internet cafes are improperly renting out their licenses or failing to register their customers' identities, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce said on its Web site.

"Industry and commerce bureaus at all levels must not license any new Internet cafes in 2007," said a Chinese government notice, dated May 30.

The communist government encourages Web use for business and education, but authorities are worried it gives children access to violent games, sexually explicit material and gambling Web sites, reports Associated Press.

Chinese President Hu Jintao has ordered Chinese authorities to clean up "Internet culture," and the government has launched a crackdown on online pornography involving thousands of police officials that has resulted in over 50 000 sites being inspected and more than 8 000 links to pornographic sites being blocked. Police officers in the Guangdong provincial bureau of public security said 55 suspects involved in 43 cases had been detained, according to reports in the Chinese Economic Net. More than 1 million yuan ($130 000) in cash had also been confiscated.

In a separate case, on May 27, police in Jieyang, in the eastern part of Guangdong, broke up a major Internet soccer-betting ring, detaining 28 suspects. Police raided 11 properties in Jieyang, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, all of which were believed to be associated with the gambling network.

Two sedan cars and 42 computers were seized.

Provincial spokesmen said police in the province would continue the campaign to crack down on online crime for the remainder of the year, and urged local people to refrain from visiting illegal websites.

China has the world's second-largest population of Internet users, with 137 million people online, and is on track to surpass the United States as the largest online population within the next two years, Associated Press reports. The government tries to block access to online material deemed obscene or subversive.