The Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) refers to the recent announcement by the housing and local government ministry that new guidelines governing cybercafes have been drawn up and are ready to be enforced.

Before this, the ministry had already come out with the ‘Guidelines on Cybercafe Operations’ which clearly states that the core business of cybercafés is limited to the access and sharing of information via the Internet.

The guidelines also prohibit schoolchildren in uniform from entering the premises. Operating hours are only to be until 12 midnight and the premises are supposed to be well-lit. The use of dark window panes was not allowed.

Unfortunately, no enforcement of these guidelines is apparent and cybercafés are blatantly being abused for unhealthy activities. The situation is already critical. Rather then yet more delays, CAP calls for an immediate nationwide crackdown on cybercafés that do not comply with existing requirements.

Earlier this year, CAP had in a random survey in Penang revealed some shocking findings which were brought to the attention of the housing and local government ministry and the education ministry.

For instance, some schoolchildren aged between 13 to 15 years admitted that the main reason for them coming to a cybercafé was to play sex-based video games. Apparently, the game known as ‘Nasty Anime Game’ gave them sexual gratification although the games were imaginary.

Teenagers as young as 13 say that they are addicted to sex videos such as ‘Hentai’, ‘The Sexy Empire’ and this ‘Nasty Anime Game’ which portray women in the nude.

Youngsters at cybercafés are also able to visit pornographic websites via the Internet. Cybercafe owners are presently not required to fit screening programmes such as Cyberpatrol, Cybersitter, Surfwatch and Net-Nanny to their computers to prevent children from accessing Internet pornographic sites.

Not only that, we found that liquor and cigarettes were being openly sold in one cybercafé. The customers of the café, which also consisted of schoolchildren, were smoking, and drinking beer sold in cans, such as Tiger Beer and Heineken.

CAP also noted children in school uniform present at each and every cybercafé that we visited. Those frequenting the cybercafé facilities were, on the average, between the ages of 13 and 17 years old.

We were shocked to learn that a number of these students were playing truant from school and that they frequented the cybercafé at least two or three times a week. These children spent between RM3 – RM7 per visit or between RM9 – RM21 a week.

The students also admitted that they obtained the money from their parents by lying that it was needed for school co-curriculum activities. There were some who resorted to stealing to fund their videogame-playing activities in the cybercafes.

In one cybercafé, there were 40 computers which were all being used at one time. Out of the 40 customers, only one was an adult. The rest were all children in school uniforms.

The ministry guidelines also require that cybercafés are well-lit and prohibits the use of dark windows. However, CAP found that some of the cybercafés were fitted with dark windows and dim lighting - in clear violation of the guidelines.

CAP calls on the two ministries to act immediately to halt the unhealthy practices going on in cybercafés.

Cybercafe owners found flouting existing laws and guidelines must be stripped of their operating licenses. These cases must be widely publicised in order to heighten public awareness and to deter other would-be offenders.

Existing laws should also be enhanced to give the government added authority to act. The well-being of our children is being seriously threatened at these cybercafés which blatantly flout existing regulations and guidelines.

If the authorities are not able to act satisfactorily against cybercafés they should be closed down with immediate effect rather than allowing our children to be continuously put at risk.

The writer is president, Consumers Association of Penang.