[Ict4devwg] Young internet addicts return to real life

[Vern Weitzel]

They seem ok to me. What's the problem? ;-)

http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=01CUL250509

Young internet addicts return to real life

(25-05-2009)

by Tran Nguyen and Le Huong


Gamers anonymous: Students on the Building Self Image course at the HCM-based 
South Youth Culture and Sports Centre take part in a physical education lesson. 
— File Photo
I search the net every minute I can. I quit class and other hob bies to spend 
time on the computer," reads a message from someone nicknamed nhonnho12 posted 
on the Yahoo! Q and A forum.

"I tried to reduce the time I spent on the internet but I could not. I stay up 
until 1am everyday to blog, chat, check mail and read websites. Please help me 
to quit the net..."

Many young people offered a variety of solutions or shared the feeling that they 
could not understand why they felt at ease when online all day and miserable 
when away from the net for 30 minutes.

"I am online the same like you," posted a net addict. "I turn on the computer 
immediately after arriving home from school. I am online until 4am during the 
summer holidays."

But they are luckier than online game addicts.

A mother in HCM City’s Tan Binh District became desperate when her once gentle 
13-year-old threatened her with a knife when he needed money to play a game.

After a few months playing the game online, the teenager became hot-tempered and 
easily irritated.

Statistics compiled by The South Youth’s Culture and Sports Centre show slightly 
more than half of the 20.2 million Vietnamese who use the internet, chat and 
play games.

VinaGame’s Online Information and Consultation Service said about 4 million 
usually played online.

A report by the US-based Pearl Research said the number of Vietnamese playing 
games online would surpass 10 million.

A circular issued in 2006 suggested game players should be made to quit after 
five hours and be offered promotion points if they did. Alternatively, accounts 
should be controlled.

But after three years, few game providers obey the regulation. Most have tried 
to find loopholes to allow players as much time as they want. Consequently, the 
number of players has risen sharply.

The Pearl report said Viet Nam’s online game market was worth US$5 million in 
2005 but had grown tenfold since .

Quit quit quit...

The girl with the nickname nhonnho12 has used the solutions suggested for those 
wanting to quit. They include playing sports, thinking about parents’ wishes to 
concentrate on study, reading, watching comedies and films and avoiding 
switching on her modem. She now only turns her computer on for study.

A special course for quitting online games and effectively using the internet 
started last November at the HCM City-based South Youth Culture and Sports Centre.

The centre’s deputy director, Tran Thi Kim Lien, said she had discussed the 
problem with parents and took 18 youngsters on the first course. About 40 
internet addicts would join the second course starting next month.

The course, Building Self Image, is based on courses run at Beijing’s Game 
Online Quitting Hospital and South Korea’s Internet Jump Up School.

"The course aims to help youngsters living an imaginary life on the net, return 
to normal life and define their own values," she said.

"That’s the foremost condition for them to subjectively escape an imaginary 
world and control themselves when using the internet," said Phan Thanh Ho, the 
co-operator of the programme.

On the first course, youngsters attended the centre on eight consecutive 
weekends. The focus was on maintaining and enhancing feelings within the 
guideline of replacing a passion by another passion.

The course offered various activities such as physical games, sports and social 
work, which aimed to give the youngsters a sense of family, friends and community.

Ho said most of the students on the first course had quit online games while 
others had moderated the time they spent playing.

"The course designers have succeeded in awakening passion and enthusiasm inside 
the learners through reality games," said Le Thi Hoang, the mother of Phan Le 
Hong Duc. Her 14-year-old was among the top five achievers of the course.

Hoang suggested it would be worthwhile to run a course for parents, whose 
children are stuck on the internet. It would help them find solutions while also 
being tactful with their children.

"The course should be run parallel with the course for children. And the centre 
should keep in touch with the parents and children after the course and connect 
them to further enhance the effectiveness of the course," she said.

"After the course, some children will return to the internet."

Lien said youngsters on the second course starting next month would attend for 
10 straight days. They would join military training classes to build their 
self-image, learn to be more decisive in refusing bad influences, work in 
groups, join psychology lessons and do social work. The centre will contact 
parents weekly to outline results and consult on any future action considered 
necessary.

"Some parents said 10 days was too short to separate children from internet 
addiction, but the centre is not able to offer month-long courses like other 
countries," she said.

"Stopping an addiction is a long-term process and requires the participation of 
the whole community. We must be better at preventing internet addiction than 
curing it." — VNS