CAFES GET LOGGED ON NEW CITY RULES GO INTO EFFECT.

Byline: Phillip W. Browne Staff Writer

Owners of trendy cybercafes say they have worked hard to comply with Los Angeles city restrictions taking effect today and believe they will make their haunts safer environments for the teenage customers.

The dimly lit, technology packed cafes - where players can buy time on high-performance computers for gaming, homework or Internet access - have spent months making improvements to meet the rules aimed at improving safety and keeping youths in school.

``Many of the regulations we already had in place,'' said Eddie Lutfi, 31, owner of Netopia cybercafe in Northridge, which was undergoing a renovation last week.

``I don't have any problems with the city imposing the new regulations, but I think they should have singled out the problem locations and focused on them. But either way, we are in compliance.''

While teens and young adults spend hours on end at cybercafes, dominating pixelated opponents and killing enemies, real-life episodes of violence prompted the Los Angeles City Council to pass the restrictions in July.

Beginning today, the city's 30 Internet gaming parlors - including the 16 in the San Fernando Valley - must enforce the city's curfew for minors and install surveillance cameras. Other restrictions limit the number of computers each business can operate, and abolish the dark window coverings that are popular in many of the locations.

Ernest Miller, a spokesman for San Francisco-based iGames, which represents about 500 gaming parlors in the United States and abroad, said his organization worked with the city to streamline the regulations. Still, he wishes it had been handled differently.

``There may have been problems with certain individual locations, but those could have been handled another way other than with blanketwide legislation,'' Miller said.

Lisa Woo-Rogers, owner of Blue Screen Gaming in Los Angeles, was working up to the last minute to comply with all of the regulations.

``We're prepped for this,'' Woo-Rogers said. ``We have the cameras - and they were extremely expensive - but now it's just a matter of installing them. We had wanted to install them anyway so we could broadcast live shots from the shop on the Internet.''

The city began to look at cybercafes in 2002 following a spate of violent incidents across Southern California, including the shooting death of Steven Nguyen, 19, of Reseda, who was attacked by Asian gangsters who followed him home from the NetStreet Internet cafe in Northridge.

A Los Angeles police analysis found that 86 percent of the 134 people arrested at cybercafes were minors, most for curfew and truancy violations.

Despite that research, Lutfi emphasized that only a few of the cybercafes have had any problems.

``We have never had anything happen here. It's very safe,'' Lutfi said of Netopia. ``The truth is we have very kind, loyal clientele. No gang members. A lot of the kids that come here tell me they would have nowhere to go after school, and they would be on the streets otherwise. This is a safe, and fun, place for kids to come.''

Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine, who drafted the legislation, said he would like to see cybercafes expand across the city, especially in lower-income areas where kids might not have access to computers.

``That's the entire point of the legislation. The safe locations will be allowed to flourish while the not-so-legit operations will probably shut down. Many of them already have,'' Zine said.

``We would like to see these cafes expand across the city. Everyone wants to have some fun. But we also want to send the message to the hooligans that they are not welcome.''

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Phillip W. Browne, [phone]

phillip.browne(at)dailynews.com

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Eddie Lutfi owns the Netopia cybercafe in Northridge. ``Many of the regulations we already had in place,'' he said of L.A.'s new safety rules taking effect today.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer