As usual, the annual full session of the National Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (NCPPCC) is proving a fertile time for crackdowns on things seen to be damaging to Chinese society. As ever, the Internet is in the sights, and one of this year's brainstorms is a ban on the licensing of new Internet cafes.

This regulation will achieve the exact opposite of what it sets out to do.

An article in Xinhua reports:

Over the past few years, China has seen an alarming rise in the number of teenagers addicted to Internet cafes and gaming.

A report released by the China National Children's Center claimed that 13 percent of Chinese Internet users under the age of 18 were Internet addicts.

Official statistics showed that the number of Internet users in China reached 123 million in mid-2006. About 15 percent of the total--or 18 million--were under the age of 18.

A report by the Beijing reformatory for juvenile delinquents claimed that 33.5 percent of its delinquent detainees were goaded into committing crimes, mostly robbery and rape, by violent online games or erotic Web sites.

Many experts and lawmakers have suggested the Government tighten up on the management of Internet bars.

As suspect as some of those statistics sound, there are certainly social problems that arise from Internet cafes. There are also, of course, social problems that arise from car ownership, drinking alcohol and restricting the free movement of labor within your country. Benefits and costs; they go together.

But a ban on new Internet cafes is almost certainly not the right way to minimize the social costs of public Internet access.

All Americans learn about prohibition, that period in the 1920s and 1930s when alcohol was banned. What happened? Speakeasies and organized crime thrived. When people want something, they'll find a way to get it. If they can't get it in a legal and well-regulated form, they'll get it in an illegal and poorly regulated one.

Unlicensed Internet cafes are easy to set up. PCs are cheap, broadband connections are easy to get, and all it takes are a few tables and chairs and you're in business. And if legal Internet cafes have a spotty safety and criminal records, imagine how bad black market ones will be. Chinese youth want to surf the Internet and they will find a way to do it.

Remember, this isn't a ban on all Internet cafes, only on the construction of new ones. By some estimates there are about 113,000 licensed Internet cafes in China (or about one for every 1,200 Chinese Internet users), and you would think they could serve demand pretty well.

But Internet penetration in China is only 10 percent, and still growing rapidly. It's also pushing out of the richest cities and further into second-tier cities and rural areas where schools and community centers are poor and the collective access provided by Internet cafes is often the only affordable way to get online. If licensed Internet cafes can't provide access, then unlicensed ones will do the job instead.

China's energy would be better spent on ensuring that licensed Internet cafes are well run and well managed, and that schools and public facilities have the resources to fill the gaps where possible. Banning new Internet cafes won't slow down the growth of the market at all. It will just drive it underground, where problems will get worse.

Related:
The Telegraph reports on efforts to control Internet addiction, this time with "boot camps".

Financial Times on Chinese government anxieties about virtual currencies, such as Tencent's "QQ Coins". (Subscription.)

Sydney Morning Herald on the brewing of potential new rules for Chinese bloggers.