Another gamer beaten: why are kids still allowed in China's internet cafes?

Do you need any more evidence that China’s internet cafes aren’t a great place for kids? I’ve written before about serial killers who prey on children in internet cafes, and have suggested they should be age restricted. But murder aside, they can also play host to some fairly disturbing violence. Take, for example, this recent incident from an internet cafe in Chongqing. A male gamer walked into the bar and flirted with one of its female employees before starting his gaming session. Apparently he said the wrong thing — she later said his speech had been “vulgar” — because when her boyfriend found out, he rounded up nine other guys and came to the internet cafe to beat the guy silly. The assault was captured on surveillance camera; it begins at around 0:35 in the clip below:

Ultimately the guy was OK, but he suffered bleeding in his lungs and a variety of cuts and scrapes externally. Now, depending on what he said to the girl, you might think that he deserved this (and since we don’t know exactly what he said, you might be right). But this sort of thing seems to happen in China’s internet cafes with alarming frequency. Just last week, in fact, Liaoning police charged a man with burning down a local internet cafe, and that’s not even the first time I’ve read about internet-cafe-related arson this year.

Obviously to some extent, crimes are going to occur in any sort of business from time to time, especially in a country as populous as China. But internet cafes seem a particularly dangerous environment, probably because they attract young adult males (who tend to be the most violent demographic) and because they attract game-addicted people who, scientific studies suggest, may be more prone to anxiety and aggression. Plus, as I’ve pointed out before, they’re often full of smokers and sometimes beer. China’s children — those that don’t have computers at home — really need a safer environment where they can learn about computers, the web, and games without having to breathe tons of secondhand smoke or occasionally witness the kind of violence picture above firsthand.

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