China Bars Establishment Of New Internet Cafés in 2007

BEIJING — China will license no new Internet cafés this year while regulators carry out an industrywide inspection amid official concern that online material is harming young people, the government said.

Investigators will look into whether Internet cafés are improperly renting out their licenses or failing to register their customers' identities, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce said on its Web site.

"Industry and commerce bureaus at all levels must not license any new Internet cafés in 2007," the notice, dated May 30, said.

The communist government encourages Web use for business and education, but authorities are worried it gives children access to violent games, sexually explicit material, and gambling Web sites.

President Hu has ordered Chinese authorities to clean up "Internet culture," and the government then launched a crackdown in April on online pornography.

China has the world's second-largest population of Internet users, with 137 million people online, and is on track to surpass America as the largest online population in two years.

The government tries to block access to online material deemed obscene or subversive.