Thai Government Comments On Gaming Curfew

Thanks to BBC News for their article discussing the reaction to Thailand's imposition of a gaming curfew for those under 18, as previously reported at Slashdot, meaning that, "For younger players [at net cafes] without the special [adult ID] logon, the game simply stops working at 10pm." Apparently, "The government say it has seen a significant drop in the number of nocturnal players since the curfew was imposed", and justifies itself by arguing: "But in the developing world, in Thailand, the parents, especially those parents who have teenage children, they must work very hard and they work until very late at night so they don't have the time to look after their children properly." But the BBC article wonders: "Is it really the government's job to decide what's best for the nation's youth after dark?"

Comments

Government responsibility

[Acidic_Diarrhea]

In a perfect world where parents can and do take responsibility for their children, the government wouldn't need to do this. That being said, it's not a perfect world. There are neglectful parents who don't monitor their children and there are overworked parents who can't monitor their children. Some government regulation has long been noted as a good thing for the youth of a country but the line between just right and too much is hard to find.

My concern is that if the parents are not around to keep their kids in bed and not out playing video games, taking the video games away merely causes the kids to look for something else to do - possibly more destructive or dangerous.

Priorities

[scumbucket]

"But in the developing world, in Thailand, the parents, especially those parents who have teenage children, they must work very hard and they work until very late at night so they don't have the time to look after their children properly."

This is bullshit. If you can't handle the responsibility of parenthood, THEN DON'T HAVE KIDS!!
Really, if these parents are putting their careers ahead of their children, they should be tied up and severly beaten.

Government control of child rearing

[Baron_Yam]

1. Should the government tell parents how to raise their kids? No.
2. Should parents spend enough time with their kids to have as strong a social group as the kids have with their peers? Yes.
3. DO parents, on average, spend enough time with their kids? Probably not.
4. Should *I* have to deal with the problems caused by a percentage of kids improperly raised? Definitely not.

The only solution I've seen so far is the government passing legislation every time a significant problem crops up. It isn't fixing the problem, but it bandaids the symptoms enough that I can walk to my local corner store without getting mugged by a teen with a knife.

On the other hand, as expressed in another comment - a kid fragging is a kid who is having harmless fun and not bothering me. I say, let them play games.

It's 10pm...

[spudwiser]

Do you know where your h4x0r is?

Personally, I think that I would rather have kids up playing video games until the wee hours instead of some of the other activities that the night can provide.

what they are really saying

[bigbigbison]

"But in the developing world, in Thailand, the parents, especially those parents who have teenage children, they must work very hard and they work until very late at night so they don't have the time to look after their children properly."

what they are really saying is that "our labor policies and minimum wage sucks, but rather than do something about it, we are going to make it easier for people to work themselves to death by taking cre of thier children for them."