China Issues New Regulations For Internet Cafes
(1/21/1999) China has tightened restrictions on Internet use, ordering
Internet cafes that offer access to web surfers to register with the
police, according to the January 21 Tianjin Ribao (Tianjin Daily).
Such bars and cafes, growing in popularity in major cities in China,
have been one of the few ways Chinese Internet users could receive
e-mail or surf the net anonymously. In January, four central
government ministries, the Public Security Bureau, the Ministry of
Information Industry (MII), the Ministry of Culture, and the State
Administration for Industry and Commerce, jointly issued a circular
instituting stricter requirements for Internet cafe operators.
According to the new rules, only Internet access providers approved by
the state information technology regulatory departments, e.g. the MII,
are eligible for an Internet cafe operator's license. Any Internet cafe
applicant must register first with the local public security bureau,
which will review and have security checkups, according to the new
rules. No one will be allowed to operate without licenses from the three
separate agencies, the local public security bureau, the local industry
and commerce administration bureau, and the local
telecommunications bureau.
Internet cafe operators are now also prohibited from providing any form
of computer games to customers. This prohibition is an effort by the
Ministry of Culture to reduce juvenile delinquency and truancy. The
new rules also ban the leasing or transference of the operation of
Internet cafes.
Online cafes also must now prevent any customers from participating
in any online activities considered harmful to state security, social
stability, or other people's interests. In a break from the past, Internet
cafe operators under the new regulations will be held personally
responsible for failure to monitor, report, and suspend online access to
suspect violators of state laws and regulations. Prior to the new rules,
Internet providers were not responsible for the content viewed by users.
In order to enforce the new rules, operators are now required to appoint
at least a part-time security administrator to oversee the surfing at
their Internet cafes.
The new regulations came as reaction to criticisms that some Internet
cafe operators offer online gambling and computer games with lewd
content, according to the joint circular.
Not one of the major nationwide Chinese news publications carried the
story today, except for the Gongren Ribao (Workers Daily), although
even the Gongren Ribao did not reveal substantive details of the new
regulations. Not one of the top ten most popular news web sites in
China, including Sohu, Sinanet, Chinabyte, Netease (based in
Guangzhou), Shanghai Online, and Shenzhen Online, revealed news of
the new policies either.
The government has encouraged the rapid spread of Internet use in
China, and China now has an estimated 1.2 million Internet logons,
each with multiple users. However, the government also closely
monitors China's internet users. On Wednesday, a court in China
sentenced a Shanghai software entrepreneur, Lin Hai, to two years in
jail for giving the e-mail addresses of 30,000 Chinese computer users
to a pro-democracy journal published on the Internet by Chinese
expatriate dissidents.
See related article(s):
Behind The Boom: Internet Use in China
China's New Securities Law Expected To Include Internet
Monitoring Safeguards
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