Cyber cafes face police wrath

HYDERABAD: In its bid to crack down on cyber sex, the Central Zone police at Hyderabad has decided to crack the whip against cyber cafes, which are allowing browsers to surf pornographic websites. It is going to serve memos to cybercafe owners asking them to remove personal cabins, which are helping surfers carry out illegal activities like watching pornography and couples resorting to indecency.

As part of the action plan for the current year, the police have found that many cyber cafes are violating rules. There are about 101 cyber cafes in the city. Some of them are collecting Rs 40 per hour to allow pornography surfing.

"We have decided to prevent this browsing by using special software. First, we are going to serve memos to those cafés who are operating with closed doors and encouraging these kind of activities. Then we will also tell them to install software to check on this activity. Moreover, no personal cabins should be allowed in cyber cafes," said, CV Anand, DCP, Central Zone.

While this move has angered café owners who have closed door cabins, at the same time it is a blessing in disguise for more open cyber cafes. “The police should have done this long time back as closed door cafes have always created problems involving sexual sites exposure to children. I feel that from now on this will not happen and all the cafes will have a clean business atmosphere, “said, Rasheed Ali, a cyber café owner in the Secunderabad locality.

However, for those who have closed doors at their cafes, this move would mean another investment into their existing infrastructure. “The business is already down these days and we are already looking for other ways of income. So if police asks us to remove the doors of our cabins then we have to invest in the infrastructure, we need to make new cabins which is a cumbersome job,” said, Raj Kumar, a Café Owner at Secunderabad