China has suspended registration of new Internet bars and profit-seeking song and dance halls, state press reported.
The official Xinhua news agency said the measure announced in a circular by the General Administration for Industry and Commerce recently aimed to create a "good environment for minors".
China has already closed 16,000 Internet cafes in the past three months, as a campaign to protect its 367 million children and adolescents from corrosive influences picked up steam.
The latest circular called for a crackdown on unregistered Internet bars, forbidding the establishment of such bars and song and dance halls within 200 meters (yards) around primary and middle schools.
Most of those using the Internet cafes tend to play electronic games. A month ago, Xinhua said a total of 8,600 unlicensed Internet cafes had been shut down since February.
China has long seemed divided on how to deal with the Internet, since on the one hand it holds huge potential for the economy, while on the other it poses a risk to the communist regime by making information more freely available.
In recent months, the Chinese leadership appears to have decided to err on the side of caution, partly as a result of a new push to raise the ethical standards of the young.
This new drive, which makes daily front-page news in the state newspapers, has targeted not just the Internet, but also the mass media, as TV stations have been ordered to air "healthier" programmes to their youthful audiences.
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