Electronic registration to stop Internet overuse

Internet cafes in Kunming, Southwest China's Yunnan Province are required to install electronic real-name registration systems that will prevent users from staying online for more than 24 hours.

The system, which takes effect in September, will electronically retrieve information from the identification cards of Net users and register them in a network that monitors all Internet cafes in the city, Yuan Jie, a law enforcement officer from the Kunming Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, TV, Film, and Sports, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The system will also force users to log off once they have been found active online for over 24 hours. Those who are forced offline have to wait at least eight hours to log back on to computers in Internet cafes.

Yuan also said that the system can help users fend off illegal online games or websites and allow law enforcement officers to remotely monitor the situation in the cafes.

A manager from a Kunming Internet cafe, surnamed Liu, told the Global Times that the system will simplify the government-required registration procedure. Under the current system user names must be recorded on paper by Internet cafe workers.