Burma Plans “Strict” Rules for Internet Cafes

Text of report in English by Burmese newspaper The Myanmar Times website on 19 May

[Report by Kyaw Zin Htun from "News" section: "Rules for registered internet cafes announced"]

Myanmar Info-Tech Corporation Ltd, the sole licence provider for government-recognised internet cafes, has announced plans to impose strict rules on internet cafes registered with the company.

U Sein Win, the corporation’s general manager, said the company has already set 19 rules for licensed internet cafes. The cafes had promised to abide by these rules since applying for their licences, but the company had found some weaknesses in compliance. “We’ve found that only about 20 per cent of registered internet cafes fully abide by the rules imposed by the corporation,” he said.

The rules require registering user information -including taking a national registration card number, address and phone numbers, sending users’ web history to Myanmar Info-tech every two weeks and capturing a user screen shot every five minutes.

“Though some cafes abide by most of the rules, we’ve found that almost all have weaknesses in full compliance,” he said, adding that only few registered internet cafes send their users’ web history by compact disc.

He added that the company had not set detailed penalties for internet cafes breaking the rules, but planned to announce the penalties soon.

But one cafe owner said stricter rule enforcement would create problems for both owners and internet users, and could even backfire. The Yankin-based owner said full compliance would be inconvenient for users who preferred not to divulge identity information, and costly and time-consuming for owners. A crackdown could drive customers to use unlicensed internet cafes, where they were not asked to provide their personal details.

The company plans to hold a seminar with registered internet cafes to explain the rules and ensure compliance, he said, adding that cafe owners can present their difficulties at the seminar and the company would negotiate and implement according to their presentations.

After explaining the rules and setting penalties, the company will carry out spot checks and take action in the event of rule violations.

Myanmar Info-Tech was founded in 2001 as a consortium to implement national information and communications projects and became the sole licence provider for government-recognized internet cafes in 2005.

Originally published by The Myanmar Times website, Rangoon, in English 19 May 08.

(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.