October 11, 2002
(Clearwisdom.net) BEIJING--China has passed harsh new restrictions on Internet
cafes, banning minors and demanding operators register users and keep records of
what information they access on line.
The regulations, which take effect Nov. 15, impose tougher safety standards and
requirements for licensing businesses that provide computers and Internet access
to users who pay by the session. Smoking is to be banned, no cafe can open
within 200 meters of a school, and all must close by midnight.
And though the rules were prompted by a deadly fire in an Internet cafe, they
also point to long-held fears among China's communist leaders that the Internet
could nurture subversion.
According to a copy of the regulations issued by the official Xinhua News
Agency, operators must post a sign warning users not to access sites or download
information about a long list of subjects, many of them politically sensitive.
[...]
Some banned areas are almost too broad to be defined, a common feature in the
Chinese legal system that allows prosecutors to define public information as
state secrets. [...]
Operators must keep records of users and the sites they access on record for two
months and provide the information on request to police and regulators.
Violators face fines of up to 15,000 yuan (US$1,800).
[...]
While China wants to develop the Internet to aid its growing economy, it has
taken unprecedented measures to keep it from becoming a resource for free
exchange of information and ideas. China has more than 45 million Internet
users, most of whom gain access from connections at home or in the office.
Already, China operates a special force to police the Internet for content
deemed subversive. Unknown scores of Web sites are blocked due to their content
and such Internet staples as the search engines Google (X.GGL) and AltaVista (X.ALV)
have been shut off to users in China because they permitted access to
information on the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement and other sensitive
topics.
Many of the regulations, including the requirement to register information users
access, were already in force in Beijing.
[...]