Taipei City says central government is trying to steal its thunder on cybercafes

In an apparent bid to compete with the central government, the Taipei City Government yesterday proposed a draft law for the management of Internet cafes.

The draft, which was proposed by the Department of Reconstruction (建設局) to the City Council's Finance and Construction Committee yesterday morning, is scheduled to be sent to the council in late June for further review and approval.

Taipei's regulations would allow Internet cafes to be set up only in the city's commercial districts and prohit it from being set up in the vicinity of schools.

Minors under the age of 15 would not be allowed to enter such a facility unless accompanied by their parents or legal guardians.

Those under the age of 18 would be prohibited from viewing pornography and and playing violent computer games.

Violators, including both Internet cafe owners and users, would face fines of between NT$50,000 and NT$100,000.

Speaking of the coincidence that both the central and municipal governments announced methods for dealing with the long-debated issue at the same time, KMT City Councilor Wu Shih-cheng (吳世正) accused the government of trying to steal Taipei's thunder.

"We've been asking the central government to take care of the problem but it has simply ignored our requests. When we realized the seriousness of the problem and started to take action, it began to do something as it was afraid of being outrun by us," he said.

According to the draft, information-recreation service providers would be barred from offering gambling services and access to pornography.

Violators would face fines of up to NT$100,000 on top of a jail sentence of between one and six months.

Internet cafe owners would also face fines of between NT$20,000 and NT$60,000 if they allowed those under the age of 18 to enter their facilities between 8am and 6pm on weekdays and between 10pm and 8am at night.

Finally, owners would face fines of up to NT$50,000 if they fail to keep week-long records of the Web sites their patrons browsed or downloaded from.

They would also face fines of between NT$10,000 and NT$30,000 if such records indicated that customers had visited Web sites containing pornography or material related to gambling.