A Critique Essay of The Chinese Columbine by Henry Jenkins

Henry Jenkins's opinion editorial article on the 2002 tragedy in a Chinese Internet café speaks of China's increasing technological modernization and casts it in a seemingly negative light, evidenced by his comparison and contrast to America's own Columbine incident. Jenkins cites Beijing's fast-paced developments in offering Internet access across the city as one of the reasons for which the two teen boys set fire to the particular café. In essence, there is more focus on development and not enough on regulation, particularly for Chinese youth who previously had near-unlimited access. But are the current laws and regulations enough?

Jenkins notes that although age regulations and fees are be implemented at the "legal" Internet cafés, there are still several illegal, underground cafés at which teens are able to access pornography and other restricted websites. (50-90%) However, there is no mention of what China's police forces are doing to alleviate this problem. Investigations desperately need to be underway to not only find these illegal cafés, but to shut them down, with police force raids if necessary. Any wireless or Internet networks in the area should also be shutdown or heavily monitored within a certain mileage radius.