Internet café operators in Labasa are strictly monitoring students’ internet access daily.
This was part of their work with police in monitoring student’s whereabouts and activities they were involved in. Certain sites in all these internet cafes have been blocked and students were only given limited sites for their school projects or emails.
Govinda’s Internet Café operates until 7pm where students were allowed to surf the net after school hours.
Owner, Vinal Vasram said students were not allowed to use the cafe’s services during school hours unless they carried a letter of consent from school heads. “There have been cases in the past where students come in to use the internet during school hours with the excuse they want to complete their assignments. To be on the safe side, we have started requesting permission letters authorised by school heads so that we know the students are here for a legitimate reason,” Mr Vasram said.
Computer operator Reshma Lal said students entered in their school uniforms after 3:30pm and most of them finished off around 4:30pm because they had to board the last bus home.
“Students are allowed to visit sites for their projects except porn sites. They come in after school hours around 3:30pm,” she said.
Most students went to internet cafes to check e-mails such as yahoo, hotmail, bebo and popular facebook, but porn sites have been blocked for their own safety in all internet cafes.
