Times of India

Bangalore, Dec 29: Kids have taken over internet parlours in the city. Don't believe it? Just get into one of the cybercafes and you will know.

Vishal Pathak, is a six-year-old Bangalorean who has net friends in Mumbai, Delhi, Munich, Dallas, London, Frankfurt and Singapore.

When TOI met him at a cybercafe in Jayanagar, he was busy sending a New Year e-greeting to Kim Young, his friend in Singapore.

There are thousands of such newgeneration global kids, spawned by the phenomenon called the internet. This time of the year, they are busy sending greetings to their friends.

Prarthik Nair, a standard IX student of ASC Public School, says: "We get to know a lot of children and adults from other parts of the world when we play online games. We play with boys from Korea, Japan or the US, and share games and files.

After some time, we become friends." Govind Parli, a standard VII student in National Public School, has over two dozen net friends. "I chat with them almost every week. I have never missed sending e-greetings to them during New Year."

With the Christmas vacation on, cybercafes are flooded with children. On an average, over 800 internet parlours in the city get 100 logins — number of people who come in — a day.

But in the past one week, it has increased to 400, says Kiran Prabhakar, proprietor of a cybercafe in Jayanagar. Ravi Kumar, a partner in NetWorld, a cybercafe in Basavanagudi, says: "The number of kids coming in has increased by 50% in the past three days, and it is likely to grow as the New Year nears."

Narayan Mahapatra, a sales executive, had to hop into three different net centres before he could send an e-mail.

"Children seem to have colonised internet parlours. Huge packs of them are sitting inside, three of them at a computer, while a large number of them are outside, waiting for their turn. It's tough for us adults to find a computer."