DONGGUAN: More than 90 percent primary and middle school students in this South China city "like" or "very much like" to surf the Internet, with 3 percent being addicted to it.

The manufacturing city's Guancheng District recently conducted a survey covering 11 schools to know the extent of students' dependence on the Net. The exercise is to help the government better regulate cybercafes.

About 18 percent of the 3,400 students polled surfed the Net frequently in cybercafes and 17 percent did so once in a while. But Net cafes are the first option for 1 percent of the students.

For 30 percent pupils, online chatting and playing games, watching films and listening to music on the Net are the favorite pastimes.

Though about 85 percent of the parents believed their children wouldn't visit dirty websites, 75 percent favored setting a time limit and restricting the sites for them.

Nearly 44 percent parents were worried that Net surfing would harm their children's studies and 42 percent feared they would get addicted to online games.

Hard to resist

But the surveyors said it was very difficult for children to resist Net surfing.

The government has been urged to open some Internet bars to meet the students' needs because all cybercafes, including those authorized by the local government, are under strict orders not to allow teenagers and younger children to surf the Net.

According to a regulation issued in April last year, a cybercafe in Dongguan can be fined up to 15,000 yuan ($1,915.7) for violating the order. Also, if a Net caf is found guilty of allowing an underage child twice or accepting three children at one time, it can be ordered to suspend operation.

And the government can close it down permanently if it allows an underage kid three times or accepts eight or more juniors at one time.

The surveyors, however, said some students, especially those whose parents were migrant laborers, and thus couldn't afford online services at home, needed the Internet bars.

They urged the government to sponsor some cybercafes that would be open for fixed hours and allow access only to "clean" sites to help such kids.

Net addicts' parents, psychologists said, should be more caring and understanding. toward their kids.

(China Daily 01/10/2007 page5)