2 million people are hooked to the internet in South Korea

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 at 4:31 pm

There are 3 famous cases of events that occured due to playing internet games online that was published online to let the world know about internet addiction. One was related to a 15 year old playing games online and not eating properly or doing his homework. When he was confronted by his mother, she got punched by him. She even showed her bruises. Second case happened quite recently and its not for the faint of heart. A couple did not feed thier 3 month old baby for a certain period of time, for how long they didn`t feed is not known. However, the baby looked a like an egyptian mummy when it was found dead. The couple had lost thier jobs but were having a good time raising an online child at an internet cafe. I do believe they deserve to punished harshly, but i am not sure about the final verdict on this case. The third on was also gruesome as well. A 22 year old beat his mother to death and than still continued to play games online with his mother`s credit card. What do you think should be done with such people? You be the judge.

Korean is a technologically advancing nation with 49 million living there. Out of the 49 million, 2 million people are labeled or assumed as internet addicts. Out of which 3 out of 10 adults along with 26% of teens are online game addicts. There are many more incidents which took place and not something to let go. The government of Skorea as take measures such as restricting access to online games as well as providing counselors to better educate the pupils about good internet usage.

Just an advice to anyone that might be addicted to the internet. There are several problems or issues that can acutally affect your daily like. Mostly related to mental disorders like short attention span or depression. Some physical problems may include malnutrition as well. So take a short breather and think for yourself.

In SKorea more than 90% homes have internet access. Along with internet cafes opened for 24hrs and spread out pretty well in the region makes internet access easily available to people. People in Skorea feel that is easier to spend time on the internet than actually meet people in real life. This is becoming a trend and people are lacking the human interaction.

However, the government has done some good by issuing orders for gaming companies in Skorea to shutdown online games at night that are mostly played by the younger generation. It seems that the games will be blocked from midnight onwards to 8a.m. for players who are under 18. To ensure the users do not fake thier details like thier age online, the ministry has allowed the game providers to use the national ID numbers to track thier users. This is also allows the companies to provide information to parents whenever thier IDs` are used by thier children to play games beyond the time limit. Furthermore, gamers have to install programs to monitor as welll as limit their access online.

Even though such measures can be put in place there will be those who will find a way to bypass it. The public also needs to be aware of the dangers of internet addiction. The first steps are already being taken to stop the internet addiction. But games are there to enjoy but not to turn into a risk factor. Schools and educations centers need to be much more aware of such things. The government has put up $9million USD just for counseling internet addicts.

Many parents are just hoping such measures taken will the saving grace for thier kids. In my opinion, i can say it is going to do very little.

Related Videos