The cyber cafe owners from Dehradun are now running their business under threat as most of them are found flouting Information Technology Rules (Guidelines for cyber cafe) 2011. According to the guidelines, owners are required to maintain records of all the users and keep a check on the work being done by them. However, what is being found on the ground is that a few of the cyber cafe owners do care to abide by the rule.
A college student, Udita Bhatia, said most of the cyber cafes near Premnagar did not ask for ID proof and sometimes two people are seen using the same computer together. “People can visit any website and the children of age group 15-17 are seen to be using computers with nobody keeping a check on them,” she added. Another cafe named 3G zone owned by Kulbeer Singh near Patel Nagar does not ask for ID proof from the user, as reported by a college student Nikhil Singhal. “Although records are maintained and user’s data is protected using proper firewall and online data protection applications but people can easily access restricted websites too,” he informed.
An official at cyber crime police station, Dehradun, the rate of cyber crimes using cyber cafe in the city are negligible as compared to the rate of crime committed through smart phones or personal computers. But soon a check will be conducted on the cyber cafes and action will be taken against those which are not following the rules, they said. Further, a few café owners are found to be aware of cyber crimes. Kulwant Singh, owner of Happy Communications in Govind Garh is one of them. He said that he has been running the cafe since 2012.
“We are in contact with the cyber crime police and inform them if anything wrong happens. Records are maintained and users are not allowed to access the computers without ID proof,” he added. Another who owns Sachdeva Electo in Govind Garh said, “Kids below the age of 15 are not allowed to use cafe without adult supervision and we make sure that restricted websites are not used. Strict measures are taken to avoid cyber crime,”