Chinese government has been cracking down on unregulated internet cafe’s or internet cafes that do not follow their very strict morality standards. Cafe's that allow games with excessive violence or explicit sexual content have been simply shut down.
China has been up till date fighting a losing battle against cyber freedom. They have however managed to keep a close eye on approximately its 100 million or so internet users, which low and behold happen to be the more educated and wealthy segment of the population. Gamers however fall into a different bracket. They come from all sorts in the social pyramid and often playing the games within the café without ever connecting onto the internet. They are essentially a harder group to keep an eye on. 1,600 bang’s have been shut down since February this year and government has issued more than $12 million, in fines against their operators for allowing children to play violent or adult only games.
Deputy director of the Culture Ministry's Market Department, Zhang Xinjian, told the state media that more than 1.8 million Internet cafes throughout the country had been inspected and more than 18,000 had been ordered to cease their operations until reported violations have been corrected.This is not a problem exclusive of China and many nations have tried to curb internet porn and violent and or sexual content of games. The only difference is that the Chinese political system actually gives them an edge in all matter of security and censorship.
Still how important are the recent events? 18,000 cafes is nothing if you look at the total number of cafes. If you happen to be Chinese and the only cafe in your town got shut down, that is pretty much catastrophic if your a die hard gamer. But worry not another cafe will sprout up faster than the last one disappeared.
There is however one unintended consequence. The number of Starcraft gamers in China will increase. The same thing happened in Korea. They had very strict rules on violence and sexual content which fostered the growth of games like Starcraft that passed the morality and political standards. Zerglings and zealots and marines pose no threat to the Chinese political system and there is simply not enough bloody gore to raise any eye brows. As for sex? Hell, I think that game makes people impotent.
Links
Theinquirer.net - Source
Heritage.org - Interesting read: Don't think this happens in China only
