China closes 8600 Internet Cafes

China’s news agency has announced that it has closed down 8600 internet cafes in an effort to protect the nations children from harm brought by reading unsuitable websites or from overuse and misuse of the web.

This might be true and it might not be, but in the current climate I’m not sure which way to lean. China has a problem with children becoming addicted to online games, and it also has a problem with all manner of people reading or writing “other material” on website, and by this I mean pro democracy or even mild critique sites.

"Any such place allowing juveniles to enter or allowing unhealthy information to spread through the Internet will face rigid, severe penalty,"

Xinhua

The key here is “Unhealthy Information”, this covers not only pornography but also political debates and pro democracy websites. While it is highly laudable for China to try and stamp out pornography and prevent the internet from interfering with the well-being of it’s children, I can’t help but think that those cafes with the most children in them might otherwise have been ignored if somebody hadn’t been using them to post political or social messages.

I’ve heard of everything from wardens to security camera’s and tracking logs being placed in internet Cafe’s in China so I’m a bit cautious every time that I hear a cafe has been closed in case there were other motives to shut it. Could be good, could be the opening barrage in an information war.

China 中国 / チャイナ
Democracy 平民主義 / へいみんしゅぎ 民主
Pro (to support) 肩を持つ /かたをもつ 拥护
Pornography 猥本わいほん / ポルノグラフィー 色情 (note Kanji and Hanzi carry slightly different meanings between Chinese and Japanese and should not be literally translated, see English translation for meaning).
Political 政治的 せいじてき 政治性
Critique (criticism) 評論 ひょうろん 批评

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/05/06/china.netcafes.ap/

links: digg this    del.icio.us    technorati    reddit