No ‘shortcuts’ to their protection

Youngsters’ cabins in Internet cafés to go The Manama Municipal Council has espoused a new philosophy – ‘protect them young.’ Coming down heavily on Internet cafés in the Capital, the council has decided to ban private cabins which have become more than a nuisance. As the number of cafés is increasing, more and more teenagers are getting an easy access to pornography, thanks to the cabins. Council secretary Jassim Redha told Bahrain Tribune yesterday that complaints had been pouring in about cafés and the way they provide facilities for children to sit in privacy and surf pornographic sites. “The cafés charge the children very little amount on hourly basis. If youngsters surf the Internet for one hour they have all the time to browse any site they want,” Redha said. “Most of the cafés depend on this kind of market to make money and therefore they save pornographic sites as ‘SHORT CUTs’ on the desktop so that the users do not have to waste time looking for the sites. Just click ‘SHORTCUTs’ and that’s it.” Redha said Batelco had shown a white flag saying that it did not have control to block pornographic sites and that could block only text. There are 100 per cent pornographic sites and Batelco can block only 2.5 per cent of them. It cannot block all pictures either. “Our technical committee, headed by Sadiq Rahma, has paid inspection visits to various cafés. The main problem is that the cafés provide private cabins which are illegal because they have not been permitted by the municipality. Since they don’t take permission for making alterations in the shops, it is considered a municipal violation. “We will enforce our decision with a firm hand to ensure that all the cafés have their computer areas open. There should be no cabins for youngsters. Yes, there can be some kind of shield near the computer screens for privacy for the users. “The cafés must keep a vigil on youngsters surfing the Net. Our responsibility is to ensure that the cafés are well-designed and commit no violations. The Ministry of Information should look into ways to block such sites.” Redha said.Last update on: 14-2-2006