China had 138,000 Internet cafes as of 2009, which hosted 135 million customers, a government report said on Tuesday.

The total output in sales at Internet cafes stood at 88.6 billion yuan (US$13 billion), according to the report on the market of China's Internet cafes in 2009, which was released by the Ministry of Culture.

However, some Internet cafes were found to spread violence and pornography and install games featuring violence to attract customers, the report said, adding some Internet cafes were also found to have infringed on copyrights of films and TV programs.

Further, many minors were found to be addicted to Internet, spending a lot of their time at Internet cafes, especially in rural areas and rural-urban fringe zones, according to the report.

In China, an Internet cafe would have to suspend operations for 30 days if found providing services to minors, defined as someone below 18 years old. If such a violation occurs twice in one year, the cafe' s license will be revoked.

China has banned Internet cafes from providing services to minors since 2002 in the wake of a series of Internet cafe accidents and increasing numbers of teenagers becoming addicted to online gaming.

In June 2002, two teenage boys set fire to an Internet cafe in Beijing, killing 25 people and injuring 12, many of whom were minors. The incident triggered a nationwide campaign to better regulate Internet cafes.

China has the world's largest population of Internet users, which stood at 384 million by the end of 2009.

(Xinhua News Agency June 9, 2010)