Police notifies rules to be followed by cyber cafes
Headlines 10:53
Imphal, July 27: In a bid to curb rising incidents of cyber-crimes in the state, Manipur Police had laid down certain rules & regulations to be followed by cyber cafes and shops accessing the internet.
This indeed is first such initiative taken up by the state police department under the guidelines of the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India. The guidelines are to be followed by cyber cafes and shops within two weeks.
According to a reliable source, a meeting was held on July 23 between top ranking officials of Manipur Police and owners and members of cyber cafes in the state. The meeting delved minutely on the increasing cyber-crimes in the state and resolved for extending co-operation between the police and cyber cafes, the source added.
Even though it is a known fact that internet is accessed through privately held mobile phones and tablets and contributes to cyber-crimes, the meeting resolved to put in place the guidelines of the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology under Information Technology Act 2000.
Even though 100% of the guidelines cannot be followed, certain parts would be followed in the first phase to be effective within two weeks. After implementation of the same, the meeting also resolved to hold another meeting to discuss the pros and cons of following the guidelines, the source said adding the meeting also discussed about keeping CCTV cameras and rules of keeping the monitors in cyber cafes.
According to the guidelines, cyber cafes should be registered to a competent or concerned agency but there is no such agency in the state. Person without ID papers should not be allowed in cyber cafes and students should produce ID cards issued by Head of Institution while accessing the internet in cyber cafes.
Non-student should produce Credit Card, Passport, Voter ID Card, PAN Card or IDs issued by the government or Driving Licence while entering the cyber cafes.
Currently, no restriction is imposed on entry to cyber cafes in the state but if any person has no ID proof on his person and still want to use internet facilities at the cafes, the cafe owner should take the photograph of the visitor for record.
Minors without ID cards can avail the facilities under the supervision of an adult family member and if someone comes without an ID card and who also do not wish his photograph to be taken, he should be denied entry to the café, the guidelines mentioned.
Records of names, address, photos and other required documents should be kept for at least one year in the Log Register. And soft and hard copies of the customers’ Log Register data should be submitted to the concerned Agency every month. But since there is such Agency in Manipur, these guidelines are likely to pose problem as of now.
The guideline also mentions that partition inside cyber cafes should not be more than 4 feet in height and apart from the monitors inside the partitions, the monitors kept in the common area should be kept facing outside. Minors should not be allowed to use the systems inside the partitioned area. All the systems’ clock should be kept in tune in all the systems in Indian Standard Time.
It also mentioned that the cafes should also keep Safety and Filtering Softwares so that access to pornography, terrorism and other illicit sites can be prevented. The cafes should also keep signboards or notice boards declaring that pornography sites cannot be accessed. A police officer not less than the rank of an Inspector can raid any café anytime out of suspicion and the café owner should produce necessary documents when asked for.
This indeed is first such initiative taken up by the state police department under the guidelines of the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India. The guidelines are to be followed by cyber cafes and shops within two weeks.
According to a reliable source, a meeting was held on July 23 between top ranking officials of Manipur Police and owners and members of cyber cafes in the state. The meeting delved minutely on the increasing cyber-crimes in the state and resolved for extending co-operation between the police and cyber cafes, the source added.
Even though it is a known fact that internet is accessed through privately held mobile phones and tablets and contributes to cyber-crimes, the meeting resolved to put in place the guidelines of the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology under Information Technology Act 2000.
Even though 100% of the guidelines cannot be followed, certain parts would be followed in the first phase to be effective within two weeks. After implementation of the same, the meeting also resolved to hold another meeting to discuss the pros and cons of following the guidelines, the source said adding the meeting also discussed about keeping CCTV cameras and rules of keeping the monitors in cyber cafes.
According to the guidelines, cyber cafes should be registered to a competent or concerned agency but there is no such agency in the state. Person without ID papers should not be allowed in cyber cafes and students should produce ID cards issued by Head of Institution while accessing the internet in cyber cafes.
Non-student should produce Credit Card, Passport, Voter ID Card, PAN Card or IDs issued by the government or Driving Licence while entering the cyber cafes.
Currently, no restriction is imposed on entry to cyber cafes in the state but if any person has no ID proof on his person and still want to use internet facilities at the cafes, the cafe owner should take the photograph of the visitor for record.
Minors without ID cards can avail the facilities under the supervision of an adult family member and if someone comes without an ID card and who also do not wish his photograph to be taken, he should be denied entry to the café, the guidelines mentioned.
Records of names, address, photos and other required documents should be kept for at least one year in the Log Register. And soft and hard copies of the customers’ Log Register data should be submitted to the concerned Agency every month. But since there is such Agency in Manipur, these guidelines are likely to pose problem as of now.
The guideline also mentions that partition inside cyber cafes should not be more than 4 feet in height and apart from the monitors inside the partitions, the monitors kept in the common area should be kept facing outside. Minors should not be allowed to use the systems inside the partitioned area. All the systems’ clock should be kept in tune in all the systems in Indian Standard Time.
It also mentioned that the cafes should also keep Safety and Filtering Softwares so that access to pornography, terrorism and other illicit sites can be prevented. The cafes should also keep signboards or notice boards declaring that pornography sites cannot be accessed. A police officer not less than the rank of an Inspector can raid any café anytime out of suspicion and the café owner should produce necessary documents when asked for.
Posted by Unknown
on 10:53.
Filed under
