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Over Half a Decade, China Closed 130,000 Internet Cafes
angry tapir writes "China shut down more than 130,000 illegal Internet cafes in the country over a six year period, as part of crackdown to control the market, according to a new Chinese government report. Internet cafes in China are highly regulated by the government, which can issue and revoke their licenses. Authorities have made it illegal for Internet cafes to serve minors under the age of 18, stating that the Web's content could endanger their well-being."
Authorities have made it illegal for Internet cafes to serve minors under the age of 18,
And the last time I went to a internet cafe I was given a vaild ID number of someone over 18 along with the name associated to log in when I explained that my ID card's missing and a new one is not yet available. Didn't even bother asking me to give my number - guess they do the same when the minors come to play online games.
Let's not jump to conclusions that this is all about -The Internet-.
Unregulated coffee can be DANGEROUS.
There's a spot in User Info for World of Warcraft account names? Really?
When I was in China last, six years ago, and went to visit internet cafe's, all the other people ever seemed to be doing was playing games.
Authorities have made it illegal for Internet cafes to serve minors under the age of 18, stating that the Web's content could endanger their well-being.
I'm surprised no one has made a crack yet about Apple's App Store rules regarding apps that allow access to the Internet. After all, they get an automatic 17+ rating. I'd make the joke myself, but I'm tired and I'm a fanboy of Apple, so I'll leave it to others.
...does six years a 'half a decade' make?
My math teachers taught me that a decade was 10 years, and half of 10 was five...
You're apparently not familiar with the "baker's decade".
#DeleteChrome
How? They've demonstrated many times that they're willing to use military force against the population. Or have you forgotten that whole Tienanmen Square thing?
To my poor understanding of english as a second language, an "illegal Internet café" is a café that operates without a licence, and not a café that violates its licence terms (not serving minors). Am I wrong?
...does six years a 'half a decade' make?
My math teachers taught me that a decade was 10 years, and half of 10 was five...
Six years, rounded to the nearest half decade, is half a decade.
You make the mistake of thinking you can educate the fundamental stupidity out of people. You can't.
NASCAR, American Idol, and Supersize portions: the opium of the people.
Before you go screaming about oppression, consider the scale of the numbers.
In 2002, there were about 46,000 licensed internet cafes, and 150,000 unlicensed internet cafes. (Ref: Time Magazine)
In 2000, there were about 40,000 licensed cafes, growing to 168,000 in 2009.
(Ref: Investors Hub)
If you apply the same ratio of licensed vs unlicensed from the Time article (3.2:1), it could be extrapolated that there were also approximately 538,000 unlicensed cafes. So if 130,000 were closed down over a period of 5 years, that would be a whopping 26,000 per year. So roughly 5% of the illegal cafes were shut down. That could easily be attributed to disgruntled customers, ex-employees, failure to pay bribes to local law enforcement, or law enforcement needing to show that they are making an effort against such illegal activity.
Someone else can work out the trends to show my numbers are a little off, but not terribly far.
These tiny numbers in relation to the size of the country, population, and number of cafes are insignificant.
I'd be willing to bet similar trends could be shown in the US relating to liquor license violations, marijuana grow house busts, and other associated nefarious activities. If it weren't China and the Internet, it wouldn't have even been news.
If you're going worry about such things, worry about those who end up in prison here in the US on petty charges, that range from perfectly legal to gray areas in many other states and countries.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
The article is not reflecting why these measures came to pass. They are trying to block minors from spending all day long playing World of Warcraft, Counterstrike and similar addictive games, not the web itself. You can be in favor or against games like that, but one thing is certain, they are truly addictive and in my country, Venezuela, they don't allow minors with school uniforms into Internet cafes either. See the problem is that in countries like this, the "cafe" part is meaningless. People use computers in these places since they might not have a net connection at home, the games would have incredible lag and a myriad of other issues mostly related to money and available infrastructure. It is the same way in most developing countries.
Indefinitely. Worse conditions have been the lot of most of the human race for most of history. Sixty-year-old North Korea is far worse.
In the USA, we don't need to be "qualified" to criticize anything. Simply put, in the USA, our expectations are higher because there is more potential and more possibility. In China, if you're not at the top of the class, your life options suddenly become much more limited (source: Chinese girlfriend). Everyone in China knows it to be true and accepts it as the way of things. In the USA, your opportunities are only limited by your own drive and life choices. It's easy to be "happy" when you don't know what you're missing. Ignorance is bliss.
Making the Internet a better place for everyone...Delineal