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China Shuts Down 8,600 Cybercafes
ThatGuyAZ writes "China has shut down over 8,600 internet cafes in the last two months as a part of a new crackdown on "underage" internet use. The crackdown has also limited access to blogs, and forums, and requires video surveilance of cybercafe patrons. Only in China would a reduction of internet access to the public be called an "education campaign"."
Only in China would a reduction of internet access to the public be called an "education campaign
Yeah, and in america they call it 'securing your freedom'
"Get 'em while they're young."
Age restrictions on Internet usage really means limiting the access of dangerous (or unpopular/undesirable) ideas to those who have not yet been conditioned. Like it or not, public schools are an excellent way to instill cultural ideas into a nation's populace. In fact, schools are perhaps the only way to reliably build a nation of any size and maintain a sense of cohesion.
Schools definitely have their own inherent benefits, but the accessibility of such young citizens is just too good a chance at perpetuating the country's ideals to let pass. I'm not saying that there's a massive and finely calculate effort to 'brainwash' children, but it is undeniably a useful tool of empire-building. This article is an excellent example of that. While China's actions are rather more extreme than anything you'd see in the West, don't think it isn't done here either. It is a very commonly used tool in every 'civilized' nation.
How many times have you pledged your allegiance?
The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.
But what good does keeping those younger then 16 off of the internet entirely accomplish?
Control what a child learns and you control the adult.
It's simple: I demand prosecution for torture.
. . . your "buddies" at Cisco and Yahoo for providing the customized routers and consulting services that are helping this evil regime tighten the noose on it's subjects.
Call (206) 338-5780 COLLECT for information about a genuine BA, BS, MA, MS, MBA, or Ph.D.
I had the good fortune to talk to someone whose degree was in library science. Their final assignment in college was to find a picture of a specified resource (It was a sculpture by an artist, but the name of both the sculpture and artist escapes me). The dozen or so students worked together, pored through the library resources, searched indexes and were finally able to uncover information about the artist and the sculpture, but were in the end unable to find any photo of the sculpture. This was in the 1970s or thereabouts.
A few weeks ago, he went to google, punched in the name of the artist and of the sculpture. The first three results had photos of the work.
For better or worse, the Internet has completely transformed the way that we find information. To deny people that tool is to ultimately make them impotent.
A DVD contains a limited subset of information; the Internet has a much larger set of information. So a DVD may or may not have the information you really want; the Internet almost certainly will.
I would be the first to agree that computers are overhyped and overtaught.
Allowing the government of China to control the behavior of their citizens is not going to keep the burgers and corn syrup away.
While I would agree that there are an increase of cases involving children and computers, consider for a moment the introduction of the automobile in widespread use during the 50s and 60s. No doubt a large population of children/young adults were all of a sudden being arrested for crimes related to driving cars: too fast, recklessly, etc. Many of them were illiterate with earlier modes of transportation -- they would be unable to ride a horse, for example. Nonetheless, I would say that the introduction of the car was overall a beneficial thing, and that allowing young adults to drive is also a good thing.
It sounds to me that your main issue is that individuals in the United States are increasingly likely to be jailed for performing actions online that don't harm anyone else and which are considered illicit only because they are happening through a computer. While this is a tragedy, it is ultimately unrelated to China's decision to close down the cybercafes and to the effect that this decision will have. China is not performing this function to save its citizens from being arrested by the state, anymore than the United States is allowing cybercafes to remain open so that it can have a steady supply of inmates for its prisons.
Our freedoms are not what China needs. Our freedoms aren't freedoms, they're "privledges", and we pay dearly for them.
Our freedoms *are* freedoms, not privileges. We have the right in the US to protest, and if we feel our freedoms are being limited it is our responsibility to voice our opposition to that limitation. As Utah Philips once said:
The problem in the United States is not that our freedoms are limited; the problem has become that people have put too much emphasis on their "pursuit of happiness" and not enough on their liberty.
Online activity is monitored and every ISP in the country is ready and willing to lift their skirts for every court order rubbed lovingly against their cheek.
I know that ISPs keep trac
Karma: Chevy Kavalierma.
The way I see it, if you limit Internet use then people will treat it like a preminum, which is what traditional computer usage was, a preminum to be used wisely.
:-7 ).
Computer usage used to be a premium because it was too expensive for the common individual to afford. It has now become relatively inexpensive and widespread, so much so that it is within the reach of the middle class (such as it may exist) of China.
The same used to be true for reading and writing, and general learning and education.
During the days of serfdom, owning land was a privilege, reserved only for the nobility and their lieges. Everyone else toiled their entire lives on land that they did not own, and gave a large portion of the food they grew to the nobles. Income taxes pale in comparison.
Owning a book used to be a privilege, before the printing press. Each book would have either been prohibitively expensive, or would have required far too much skill to reproduce. Now, you can get the same information bound in a conveniently sized volume for less than a day's salary (even mine
When you think of things as being privileges, you tend to deify them and feel that there are certain people who don't deserve to have them.
But, everyone deserves to be able to read and write. Everyone deserves to be able to own a book. And, everyone deserves to be able to use the Internet.
Not all uses of these things should or can be permitted. The US has free speech, but you can't yell "Fire!" in a movie theater and you can't say "Fuck" on Public Television. You can have a book, but you can't use it to hit people over the head with it. You can read and write, but you can't write death threats.
I know I already responded to your post but this paragraph caught my eye again and I wanted to respond to it in particular.
Karma: Chevy Kavalierma.
"Why is it a good thing to cut down trees just so you can put your hands on what you are reading?"
Because Paper is a technology that lasts without power, and without our current infrastructure. Digital information is deceptively easy to lose and depending on how it was packaged and by whom and for what reason, it may no longer be possible to access it.
Digital is nice. But there are some things which may never become digital. It's important to understand both legacy and contemporary information systems.
I didn't have computers when I was in school, but now that people do have computers, it's so easy to plagarize others that instructors now have to routinely check students' work for it. Cut and paste makes things pretty easy.
I remember using a typewriter. It's not a pleasant memory.
There may exist the perception that digital works are good enough, but when things go to crap and there are few amenities, having a hard-copy is priceless.
We live in such a fragile information environment that we easily take it for granted, come to rely upon it, and forget that in rural areas Libraries and dead-tree books are still priceless. I guess I'm just an old fart that doesn't like PDF's/HTML. I've read hundreds of books, but I have serious problems trying to read electronic books. The last time I tried it, I could feel the "bit and bridle" of DRM and "only on the machine you downloaded it on". Screw that. E-books were a failure because there is a place for analog media.
Depending on your degree and how accomplished you were when you attened school it's not unreasonable to applaud you for accomplishing this. You are the exception. However, I don't remember any HVAC students not visting the stacks, or physics majors, or psychology majors getting out of using the library. And as I type this, I have two foot-high stacks of books on my desk and three other stacks on another desk nearby for everything from C++, Java, Servlets, Webservers, Email servers, etc..etc...
My books are my tools. PDF's don't work for me much. YMMV.
Every new form of media has it's own Requirimento