Jakarta – Indonesian police raided Internet cafes on Monday and rounded up dozens of students who were skipping school to play computer games or chat with their friends online.

The raids in the town of Bandung, West Java, came in response to complaints from parents and teachers about children missing classes to spend time on the Internet, an official said.

"We raided 23 Internet cafes and rounded up 89 students. Many were in their school uniforms," Bandung city official Suparno told AFP. "They should be in school during school hours but instead they were playing computer games, chatting online and checking their Facebook profiles."

The students, aged mostly in their early teens, were given a warning and sent back to school, he added. "The students were shocked to see us. Some pleaded with us to let them go and promised never to play truant again," Mr Suparno said.

Internet cafes offer a low-cost connection to the web for ordinary Indonesians who cannot afford their own computers. Despite low wages and poor Internet infrastructure, Indonesians are among the world's most dedicated users of social networking sites like Facebook.