Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

Checking misuse of Internet centres

In the wake of frequent e-mail threats, the police have embarked on an exercise to regulate Internet centres, writes V.S. PALANIAPPAN

Miscreants seem to revel in making prank and blank phone calls and sending anonymous letters issuing threats. Now the threats come in the form of SMS on cellular phones and through e-mails. Besides sending threatening e-mails to very important persons (VIPs) and protected persons (PPs), there are increasing number of instances wherein security agencies and vital establishments receive such mails from Internet centres across the country.

Recently, the office of a foreign counsel at Chennai and New Delhi received such e-mails. The security agencies traced the origin of these mails at Internet cafes in Coimbatore and Tirunelveli. Miscreants use the Internet centres to go scot-free. In addition, the centres make quick money by providing access to pornographic CDs and obscene websites. Realising the need to streamline their functioning, the City Police decided to tighten restrictions and regulatory mechanism. The Commissioner of Police, Karan Singha, and the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Law and Order, T.S. Anbu, evolved a detailed set of guidelines to control the Internet centres.

Most of the 220 listed Internet centres turned up at the City Police Office on Tuesday for a meeting convened by the DCP, Mr.Anbu. The meeting explained the restrictions enforced by the police to prevent the misuse of Internet centres.

Though it would be an additional workload on the law-enforcing agency, Mr. Anbu said invoking the provisions of Section 34 of the Madras City Police Act, these centres would be subjected to a licence procedure. The objective is to get these centres organised under the ambit of law and to prevent unauthorised centres, which cater to the needs of anti-social elements, from coming up. The Internet centres would have to insist on the identity proof of the customer before allowing him to browse the net. The details of the visitor, his identity, time of entry and exit and purpose of visit should be clearly mentioned in a detailed log book to be maintained by the centres.

These registers should be preserved for three years to make them available for scrutiny if a need arose.

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