China cracks down on internet cafes

Chinese authorities closed down 12,575 internet cafes in the closing months of 2004, according to the country's government. As the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk reports, according to the official Xinhua news agency, the majority of the cafes were closed because they were operating illegally. Chinese internet cafes operate under a strict set of guidelines and many of those most recently closed broke rules that limit how close they can be to schools. The move is the latest in a series of steps the government has taken to crack down on "immoral net use". According to the official Xinhua News Agency, the crackdown was carried out to create a "safer environment for young people in China".