In addition to banning gaming among minors from the internet cafes, they are also now prohibited from playing online games in coin-operated internet machines (pisonet) and gaming arcades during weekdays. This came after the 19th Davao City Council amended its regulation on Tuesday, September 24.
The amendment was done on Section 8 of the existing Davao City Children’s Welfare Code. wherein operators of pisonet and other commercial establishments catering rental of electronic video games and/or offering Local Area Network (LAN) services shall not provide gaming services to children during school days.
With the amended provisions, councilor Richlyn Justol, committee head on women, children and family relations, said minors will now only be allowed in internet cafes until 9 p.m. only. From 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., minors will not be allowed to enter internet cafes.
However, the challenge will be monitoring its execution.
Justol said that the city is struggling to monitor both internet cafes and pisonets despite the existing city ordinance regulating the operation of internet cafes. Moreover, there are also pisonets that operate without having a permit to operate.
Still, we’ll have to wait and see how this pans out in the city.
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