The Lan Gaming Problem in Singapore

RE: Singaporean youths spend more time gaming than American youths: Study

"On average, gamers here spend about 20 hours per week on gaming, as compared to about 13 hours for American youths.

Of this group, about one in 10 were found to display symptoms of obsessive, or pathological, video gaming, which caused significant disruption to their regular lives.

Such pathological gamers also spend twice as much time gaming, averaging more than 37 hours a week. They are more likely to have poorer grades, are less social and more hostile, and have more health problems like wrist pain.

Other countries with high rates of obsessive gamers include China (14 per cent), South Korea (10.2 per cent) and Spain (9.9 per cent), said the study."


More than 37 hours per week?! That's almost a full-time job.

After years of looking the same problem, it's just more stats reporting, and waste of public funds (millions of dollars) on studies and awareness/ wellness programmes.

Since when have such awareness and wellness efforts lead to any real decrease in addiction?
Just ask Health Promotion Board (HPB).
It has been doing such rah-rah programmes for smoking addiction.
Years and millions of dollars later, the statistics for smokers, especially the younger ones, are looking worse than ever.

Wake up! Wake up!
Stop pretending that having rolled out some awareness programme = did a great job.
These gaming addicts are stealing, borrowing from loansharks, and beating up their mothers to feed their addiction.

Time to be realistic about the approach against this War on Gamecraft.

Obviously, a HPB-type approach has proven not to work.
You don't hear of people borrowing from loansharks to buy cigs, but you do hear of kids borrowing from loansharks to lan-game, similar to drug addictions.

Time to think about a more CNB-ish approach, which includes:

(1) Legislation (Laws on how long each lan gaming session can last, Minimum age for lan-gaming, Power for the public agency to take drastic action against lan shops, individuals, Taxing the lan shops (i.e. raising the minimum price of lan-gaming) etc)

(2) Enforcement (Need I say more?)

(3) Awareness (Target parents, teachers, ECA groups etc, not just the kids.)

(4) Mandatory and optional Rehab programmes (E.g. for parents to opt-in on the rehab programme for their kids, for the system to prescribe rehab as an option etc.)

Stop acting blur and looking away, while hoping for a post-out before this issue blows up, just because this does not fall squarely in your (ministry's) portfolio today.

The more troublesome this piece of policy solution is, the more serious the situation has become.

And the more you drag your public servant feet, the more kids (and their families) will suffer.