Visitors of private Internet cafes asked to show passports

One needs to show his or her passport to use Internet in Mahilou. This rule covers private Internet cafes. There are no such demands at state enterprises.

Visitors of an Internet cafe are asked to show their passports “to write your data in a notebook who are you and where you live”.

Administrator of Mahilou Arsenal Internet cafe allowed a Deutsche Welle correspondent to get acquainted with a document ordering to show a passport. It was a Regulation on Computer Clubs Work in Mahilou, adopted by the decision of the Mahilou city executive committee of 21.12.2002.

“We always check passports. According to our laws, minors can be in the street only till 11 pm. Most clubs didn’t perform this regulation, people of all ages could attend them at night. Control has probably been tightened after some cases,” a director of Mahilou 3 X Internet cafe told to Deutsche Welle.

However, it was found out during the conversation that requirements have been tightened when terrorism theme became very popular: “There are some innovations, as a customers’ journal, it is said it can be connected with a threat. We must record names of all visitors who use the Internet. Of course, it is not etiquette to ask to show a passport at daytime. But terrorism is a thing that can happen by day, too, at home, anywhere,” the director said.