Hong Kong Tang King Po College 2002-2003
F.6A Use of English 
Writing Assignment for the "Atypical Pneumonia Holiday"
Letter to the editor on Cyber Cafes

30th March, 2003
Dear Editor,
	In recent years, cyber cafes are very popular among Hong Kong students and many of the cafes are opened near schools offering special discounts to students which make it more popular for students to linger around the cafes after school.  I feel strongly about this and think that the Government of the HKSAR should license and monitor the cyber cafes as it does to electronic games centers.
	Cyber cafes are places where students use up and waste a lot of their pocket money.  Many students go to the cyber cafes because they think that it is a trendy thing to do.  Many of the students are bad at managing their finance and hence they may end up spending hundreds and even thousands of dollars on the cafes but not on their usual expenses such as transportation and lunch fees.  Some students may think that if they do not go, they will be discriminated by their friends.  To achieve the goal of being accepted by their peers, they may have to spend money on these extra entertainments and in some cases, in order to get enough money, they may even steal from people which is an offence.  Stealing can lead to imprisonment and this will definitely affects the whole life of the student if they violate the law.
	Furthermore, the environment in cyber cafes is not good.  The places are usually dark, the ventilation is not good and a lot of people are usually squashed inside the cyber cafes.  Some cafes may even allow smoking.  The absorption of excess Carbon Dioxide gas and carcinogenic substances from smokers such as Nicotine may cause muscle fatigue and even lead to brain cell damages which can kill us.  Many of the cafes operate 24-hours a day and this make them hard to clean up the café thoroughly for the users to use.  This can cause the growth of bacteria which may lead to serious diseases.  If one gets sick, not only will he have to take medicine and take rest, but also his academic studies will be deeply affected.  He may have to skip class due to his sickness and hence he will not be able to learn the lessons at school.  Doctors always tell us to keep healthy not because we will not have to take medicine, but to work more efficiently.  Without working efficiently, how can we ever build up a better society?
	The computers and the computer games are addictive and may cause serious social problems.  Cyber cafes do not attract students by its drinks or food that it offers, it is the computers speed of accessing to the Internet and the computer games which attracted them most.  An example will be a piece of news from Sing Tao Newspaper on 1st March, 2003.  It said that an 11-year-old boy was found in a cyber cafe watching people play computer games for a total of seven days.  Throughout these seven days, he did not eat, he did not go home, nor did he go to school.  He just sat at the cyber cafe watching people play computer games.  The boy said that he has not got a penny with him since he used them all up to slip out from his home in Tseung Kwan O to the Cyber Cafe in Wan Chai.  From this case, we can clearly see that the boy does not care about his life but only focus on the computer games.  Without control from adults at home, they will play the games day and night, forgetting about eating, forgetting about sleeping, forgetting about attending schools and even aim their life at “playing games” only.  They are not mature enough to be self-controlled and they do not know how to manage their life.  One cannot be devoted into something which is generally considered as useless to the society.  How can they ever re-pay the society when they are older?  How can they improve the society?
	Supported by the above reasons, I strongly believe that the Legislative Council should enact a law to license the cyber cafes so that only youngsters of a certain age or above can enter a cyber cafe and those wearing school uniforms should not be allowed to enter Cyber Cafes.  The law should be similar to those for the electronic games centers and that the access to pornographic websites should be banned.  Furthermore, the Hong Kong Police Force should help by monitoring the cyber cafes according to the law.  The Education and Manpower Bureau should teach the students and parents by means of seminars, promotions and exhibitions that staying too long in cyber cafes for leisure is on the whole disadvantage to the students themselves.  Undeniably, leisure is needed, but there are other types of entertainments which are healthy for them, for example sports and music.  By these suggestions, I am sure the problems related to cyber cafes will be improved and I am hoping to see a better “Cyber Café Control” soon by our Government.
																				Yours faithfully,
Chris Wong
Chris Wong  

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