INTERNET CAFE, A THREAT TO YOUNGSTERS

I happened to go to an internet cafe in my locality a few days ago approximately at 11 am in the morning, as internet services were not functional at my home. No sooner did I enter the cafe, I found a queue of youngsters especially 12 to 15 years of age. They were wearing school uniforms and waiting for their turn to use internet, as cabins in the cafe were already busy. The youngsters seemed to belong to good families but their gossips made me feel ashamed. They were freely and easily abusing each other and laughing, as there was nothing to be ashamed! As soon as a cabin emptied, they started to argue that it is their turn because they came first in the cafe.

I felt sorry for the whole situation and thought whether internet cafes were good or bad? Their uniforms showed that they fled from their schools and came to the cafe to enjoy! I asked the owner of the cafe why not he forbad school students to restrain from his cafe. He replied why he should forbid them when their parents themselves did not pay any heed to them. In addition, he said that he earned a lot of money by these students because they daily came to benefit from internet! One more thing he secretly told me and I am hesitant to mention here because it is completely disgusting. He told that these students made pretext to avail internet services but they came to watch immoral movies that he saved for these kinds of costumers in particular.

It was shocking for me and I thought how illegally the owner of the cafe was earning money, destroying the future of the students! It is a pity that parents enthusiastically and happily bring their children up and send them schools, believing that their children will support them in their old age but unfortunately, they are unaware of their children’s bad deeds! Although the owner of the cafe was a mean person but his words, “why he should forbid them when their parents themselves did not pay any heed to them,” are reasonable. It is the primary responsibility of the parents to keep their eyes on their children where they are going, what they are doing, what friends they are making and so on. They should definitely go to schools once a week or month to ask their reports whether they are regular or not! Their irresponsibility, leniency and ignorance could demoralize their children and damage their future!

Anyways, the government in this regard is also responsible according to me. It should form some strategies to stem from these kinds of wrong activities. Licensing system must be introduced to cope with these ill-mannered activities. If a person wants to open an internet cafe, he should firstly seek permission from concerned authorities and receive a license to run the cafe. Besides, all illegal cafes be sealed without any delay whereas all licensed internet cafes be checked once a week or month whether any illegal activities are functional or not! If any internet cafes are found in illegal activities, immediate actions be taken against them and a big amount of rupees be charged as a fine and invalidate their licenses!