Internet cafes soon to have age limit of 18 yrs
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Criticised for being ‘crime production centres’, internet cafes will soon experience tighter regulations. The first thing that is being revised is the age of consent, currently set at 12 years, which is to go up to 18 years. If this change occurs, internet cafes will be placed in the same category as men-only coffee shops and licensed bars. AKP Istanbul MP Gülseren Topuz asked the Ministry of Education and the Interior Ministry to take action against internet cafes, where ‘such illegal activities varying from the women and drugs trade, to instructions on how to change the mechanism of a pretend gun in order to turn it into a firing gun’.
Claiming that internet cafes were not under close enough observation as a result of the lack of coordination between the police and the municipalities, Topuz stated that the raising of the age limit to 18 was under consideration.
Used for chatting
Topuz drew attention to the purpose of the visits to the internet café, saying that they were mainly used for chatting, internet games and pornographic sites and not to obtain information. She added that she thought that the Education Ministry’s aim to turn computer rooms into 24-hour information centres was one that could help reduce the problem.
Having visited many internet cafes in Istanbul as a customer, Topuz claims that she has overheard discussions of how people “had changed the mechanism on [their] gun to turn it into a real one” and “where [they] get their ecstasy”, and says that a generation will be lost if the necessary precautions are not taken.