A letter arrived on the desk of the Party secretary of Fangxian County, in North China's Shanxi Province, on March 8 of this year.

In the letter, a teenager pleaded for the county to do something about the Internet cafes in the county seat, which he said were doing irrevocable harm to primary and middle school students like him.

The letter set off a chain of government actions that led to the closure of every Internet cafe in the county's town centre by late May. There are now only two Internet cafes in the whole county, with an area of 1,434 square kilometres and a population of about 140,000.

According to a media report, these actions have won kudos from many local people for almost successfully sending the "game-addicted" teenagers back to school. Some students have shown improvement in their academic performances.

Fangxian, an obscure mountainous area, has thus risen to national fame. In fact, more than 200 netizens left comments on the message board available on the county's government's website, www.sxfangshan.gov.cn.

The applause for the county's actions seemed louder than the criticism. Some said the Internet has little good to offer young people, especially those in schools. One even goes as far as suggesting other places should follow Fangxian's example.

However, as an avid netizen who considers the Internet indispensable from work and daily life, I don't believe shutting down all the Internet cafes in town is a way of executing good governance, because the county has failed to find more effective ways to ensure that local Internet cafes operate within legal boundaries.

By ending the businesses of all Internet cafes, the county has closed the open window to knowledge and the outside world for those local residents above the age of 18 who cannot afford to buy a computer and purchase an ADSL or dial-up scheme to go online.

In fact, people above age 18 make up the bulk of Internet users in China. According to the China Internet Network Information Centre, people between the ages of 18 and 30 accounted for 57.3 per cent of China's 123 million Internet users by this July, and 58.6 per cent of Internet users earned below 1,500 yuan (US$188) a month.

Despite the problems associated with online gaming and other unhealthy contents online, the Internet offers a far greater wealth of information and knowledge than it does garbage. That's why it has grown so rapidly and ever more closely linked people of the world.

Among Chinese netizens, some 82 per cent say their first source of news and information is the Internet. Meanwhile, more than 60 per cent go online to keep in touch with their friends, and over 40 per cent log on to chat with their friends and for instant messaging.

Only 32 per cent of netizens say they also play games on the Internet.

Rather than banning Internet cafes, governments at all levels should explore better management schemes. In fact, across the country, quite a few cities have been establishing new models to offer free Internet access and learning to students as well as other young people in schools, publicly funded libraries or other establishments.

Internet cafes are better scrutinized and run by law, so that no students under the age of 18 are allowed to enter. Time limits are set for online gaming.

For other places to follow in the footsteps of Fangxian is just unimaginable. If that happened, about 42 million Chinese would have no place to go online, as some 29.5 per cent of Chinese netizens access the Internet at such cafes.

I don't think we'd like to see so many of them have to be content like toads sitting in the well without being able to follow what else is going on above the ground.

Email: lixing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 10/12/2006 page4)