China closed 12,575 internet cafes at 2004 year-end

BBC reports that the Chinese goverment closed 12,575 internet cafes in the last months of last year.

According to the official news agency most of the net cafes were closed down because they were operating illegally.

Chinese net cafes operate under a set of strict guidelines and many of those most recently closed broke rules that limit how close they can be to schools.

More info at BBC