[governance] No Internet Cafe is allowed to operate within an area closer than 500 meters from any school

[Norbert Klein]

According to /The Cambodia Daily/ of Friday, 7 December 2012, the 
Ministry of Post and Telecommunications has recently issued a decree 
that says, among other points:**

*No Internet Cafe is allowed to operate within an area closer than 500 
meters from any school. *

Given the fact that Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia, has many 
schools, it has to be assumed that not many regions remain outside of 
these 500-m-circles around all schools; it also has to be assumed that 
the majority of already existing Internet Cafes, located in areas of 
social activities including schools, will have to close down.

This order is issued to supposedly protect young people from bad 
influences: Violating “traditions”, exposing them to pornography, 
preventing them from playing prohibited games – but none of these issues 
has any clear definition. And there is no clarity about the legal 
authority to interpret and enforce these measures.

The regulation is also to protect users from using drugs, doing money 
laundering, kidnapping, and human trafficking – all these activities are 
anyway illegal – their prohibiting is covered by different laws – why 
include these in the new order on to Internet Cafes?

As for some context: according to a recent survey, there are more than 
600,000 Facebook users in Cambodia. Many of them do not have computers, 
but access the Internet from Internet Cafes.

=

Of course I know that the Dubai conference is dealing with many 
important issues on a different level. But I find it really surprising 
that these regulations come forward while – I assume – also Cambodian 
government representatives are attending the ITU conference in Dubai.

I wanted to share this information – shocking in its general scope, and 
at the same time extremely vague. I would of course appreciate to 
receive comments, which I then might share locally.

Norbert Klein
Phnom Penh
Cambodia

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