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Thailand Imposes Gamers Curfew
bg writes "How addicted can you be? According to this article, Thailand will install a curfew to "protect" their childern from the addiction from Gaming. "Game servers, both local and overseas, will be blocked from 10.00pm to 6.00am daily from July 15 to Sept 30, while Internet cafes will also have their hours curbed to those times". Under particular attack is Korean role-playing game Ragnarok, which was introduced to Thailand seven months ago."
Remember, this is Thailand. During the hours from 10:00 pm to 6:00, that is where they want the children working.
I don't know what it is with Korean games, but the sounds coming out of the character's mouths never sync with their lips. I must have a slow PC.
Once again I bring you this service announcement:
Parents, watch your kids. Don't make the government do it for you, you won't like it.
This is not specific to Thailand either.
Sent from your iPad.
I'd like to see how the plan to do this from a technical stand point. Blocking some well know servers shouldn't be all that hard. But blocking all gaming trafic.... I see this plan failing hard and fast.
Technology, the cause of and solution to all of life's problems.
Hopefully it will prevent incidents like this, when gamers apparently don't know when to stop.
I wish they would come around to my apartment and *enforce* this curfew on me, personally.
Games should have a playing limit; If you play for more than 24 hours, it enforces you to shower, shave and eat something. You would have to present fresh evidence that these tasks have been done before unlocking the next level.
It would be for my own good :/
Just run a game server at port 80? Or if it requires more ports, tunnel them all through port 80 or use other common ports? (21, 23, 25, etc) This either renders the "curfew" useless or generates one helluva fun spastic reaction from Thai officials as they accidently ban the web.
Hate me!
I totally agree with you. How about the poor adult shmucks who work evenings and can only play at night? Penalize everyone for the sake of the kids. It should be the parents' responsibility to enforce this, not the government (except maybe having the internet cafes not admit anyone under the age of 18 between those hours). Where are the parents while this is happening? Why arent they watching what their kids are doing?
It's better to burn out than to fade away
Placebo? Is that the art of convincing your enemy you hit him really without actually touching him?
Malaysia has, like Thailand, what it perceives to be an increasing amount of youth addicted to gaming. What one has to understand is that the methods of parenting in many Asian countries are quite different from those employed here, as is the perceived role of law enforcement. Because parents feel that they cannot simply order their children to stay away from the arcades, they put their trust in the laws of the land to prevent their children from what is seen as an unproductive, unhealthy activity.
I've been to Malaysian Net Cafes. Part of the reason parents are so worried about these places is because they often are havens for youth gang members, and still more often serve as venues for recruiting impressionable youths into the gangs.
Gaming addiction, while not so prevalent here, is quite common in the Far East. Kuala Lumpur has Net Cafes on every block, and enough children skip school or sneak out at night to play there that parents groups have demanded that something be done.
Many asian societies value strict adherence to the wishes of one's parents. These curfews have probably been implemented because parents feel extremely concerned that their children are defying family values (by disobeying their parents and playing games at all hours).
Now kids can go back out on the street and get mugged, do drugs and get trashed at parties! Just what every "normal" kid should be doing. If my kid has a tendancy to get addicted to things then I want him doing drugs and alchohol, not evil video games!
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..... but not surprising coming from the country where it is allegedly illegal to go commando!
..... it's part and parcel of what separates us from the animals.
But seriously. This sort of thing is serious, even although it is "only" happening in Thailand, because I can hear Blair, Bush et al having real live orgasms about the possibilities. You have to ask the question, "what next?" When they finally take the ashtrays off restaurant tables, the sugar bowl and the salt cellar will look furtuvely at one another and wonder how long they have left. Those in authority never stop with what they have. If they can successfully "solve" the "problem" of childhood addiction to computer games, then some new problem will take its place as "#1 menace to our youth" and will, in turn, be "solved" by an even more pointless and draconian law.
Since when has it become necessary to prevent adults from doing something that might be harmful for children just in case children might do it anyway? That is not the job of the government, it is the job of parents. The whole point of being an adult is that you alone are responsible for your actions and the consequences thereof. Since the dawn of time, the human race has practiced self-destructive behaviour
Governments have been nibbling away at our rights for a long time now. Every so often, though, they seem to bite off a huge chunk, chew it with their mouths open, and spit it in your face.
If we don't take up against this sort of thing right now it might be too late. The day is coming when every single decision that might have a hint of a consequence about it will have already been made for you. The world is turning evil, what with ID cards, CCTV cameras, embedded RFID chips, anonymous tip-off hotlines and suchlike. And you know what? Under that kind of a system, I really can't think of a single advantage to not being in prison.
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
I will probably get flamed for this, but I think this is a positive thing.
You're right. This is Flame Number One.
Growing up, I grappled with a gaming addiction. Going to school on three hours of sleep is not good for your education (despite what some articles might have you believe). In a perfect world, parents would be preventing their children from overloading on games. In reality, in these days of dual incomes and extracurricular activities, they aren't always able to, and it's a good thing that the government can step in and lend a hand.
I remember one time, back in the early 90's, I was playing too many video games and not doing my homework. I was still getting pretty good grades, mostly B's, but not the A's I was capable of. I was living only with my father, at the time, so there really wasn't anybody around for several hours a day to watch me (I was 12-13 at the time). My punishment was very limited video game access for 6 months, or until my grades improved. You know how my father accomplished that? He took my Super Nintendo to his workplace, put it in a box, and stuck it under his desk. It could have been in the car, at one of his friends' houses, or any number of a million other places. Was my father "special", or "lucky", or a "more talented" parent, or simply "more intelligent" than your parents? Probably. Maybe the easiest solution is for parents to be parents.
The alternative is medication (which is how I kicked the video game habit before I became the next Columbine), and that will just be more expensive to everyone in the long term.
Great idea. Let's just drug our children. After all, 6% of the children in this country actually have ADD, yet 17% (or more) are on Ritalin. We obviously need more drugs. While I'm on the subject, maybe you don't watch enough TV (because of your work schedule and all), but perhaps you've seen the commercials that try to drug all the adults now too? They're paid for by the company that produces Ritalin.
Curfews are cheap and effective.
What's cheap about it? Paying the government employees their union-decided wages to work minimal hours on doing the least-possible work? What's effective about a curfew? I was out all the time when I was a kid after the 10pm curfew that we had in our town. I walked past the police department at 2am, including officers and patrol cars (and I didn't look over the age of 12), and never once got taken home, or fined, or anything.
Another good approach might be to put a lower age limit on the use of Windows.
I'm not sticking up for Microsoft, but putting an age limit on software is insane. If my 3 year-old is intelligent enough to play Final Fantasy X, then damnit, he/she will play Final Fantasy X. Who's going to regulate and enforce that age? Microsoft? Then they'll be collecting more personal information about you, which I'm sure you'll love. The government? Oh wonderful. Another Total Information Awareness Act. Great idea.
You need to think out your arguments before you post... seriously. If your parents didn't want you playing games, they shouldn't have purchased the console for you. If you only had 3 hours of sleep every night, eventually, you'll fall over and sleep. It seems like it took you quite a few years, but you're mentally asleep now. Mission accomplished.
"It's better to have a gun and not need it than need a gun and not have it." ~ Christian Slater, True Romance
Because parents feel that they cannot simply order their children to stay away from the arcades, they put their trust in the laws of the land to prevent their children from what is seen as an unproductive, unhealthy activity.
Well here in Canada (and the US) parents don't feel they can simply order their children around either. But rather then expect law enforcement to do anything about it, they whine and bitch about freedom and rights.
Then schools and law enforcement try to cover the gap left by bad parenting, constantly overstepping reasonable bounds and cause more trouble. (I actually had a principal that gloated about how he was more powerful then a court, he didn't even need evidence to punish students)
Bad parenting exists everywhere, you have busy hardworking overworked parents, lazy parents, non existant parents.
Making laws to compensate isn't going to help, we need parents to get back to work.
(No, I'm not a parent. Yes I know it's hard, which is why I'm not a parent yet, I'm not ready.)
The alternative is medication (which is how I kicked the video game habit before I became the next Columbine)
You know, I pretty much grew up on games. Heck, I still have my gaming addiction. I'm almost 33 now, and I haven't shot anyone. In fact, I don't even consider violence to be a solution to anything.
I also have a well paid job as a programmer. Somehow gaming didn't interfere with that education after all. (In fact, it was what got me interested in programming in the first place. And my father fully cooperated there, so by the time I was 14 I was already fluent in Z80 assembly.)
No medication was necessary, either. Go figure.
My father did insist though that I go to bed at 9 PM, no matter what. Maybe that's why I didn't go to school on 3 hours sleep.
If your parents just put you on drugs instead, well, no offense to you, but I hope your parents do take offense. Because they're retards. They're a prime example of what's wrong with society today, and what's the _real_ cause of stuff like Columbine happening.
The real problem is: people who don't want to deal with their kids. In some situations even to talk to them. They're so busy making a career and working 12 hour geek shifts to impress the PHB, that poor kids get at most 5 minutes a day of speaking to their parents.
And when said kids have a problem, the parent takes the easy way out. Just put the kid on drugs or insist that the government take care of that problem. Hey, it's easier than talking to the kid, right?
A lot of blowing stuff out of proportion is based on that lack of communication too. It's easier to make blanket statements about games, than to talk to the kid and find out exactly what games does he play.
It's downright retarded to put for example FPS gaming in the same pot as, for example, puzzle games. You tell me how some kid growing on logic games is going to be the next serial killer. No, really. I'm all ears. He's going to get the idea of shooting people with a shotgun... from a game which doesn't even have shotguns anywhere?
Yet people will still make these blanket statements anyway and expect the government to do their work for them. It's easier than actually talking to their children. Or than, you know, actually trying to influence the kid's choice of games.
So here's an idea: if you're going to put your carreer in first place, and the kids only in 10'th place (after watching football, beer, watching news, and everything else) on your list of priorities... you shouldn't have kids in the first place. Wear a condom. They're cheap. Or take a pill. Have an abortion. Whatever.
But don't just bring a poor kid into this world and then treat it like it's some unwanted rat in the basement.
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