Late Night Gaming Banned In Vietnam

R3d M3rcury writes "Vietnam's Ministry of Information and Communication has asked ISPs to block access to on-line games between 10:00PM and 8:00AM. 'The request, made on Wednesday, is another move from the authority to mitigate the side effects of online games. The request follows numerous stiff measures by the ministry to tackle the issue, including cutting internet access to agents at night beginning last September.'"

Comments

No late-night gaming on the internet?

[mrjb]

That's a shame. Now children will have to get back to their regular scheduled gambling- and drinking games.

Unfair to those who are responsible...

[realsilly]

If you're a hard working individual who works 10+ hours a day in Vietnam, you're losing one of those things that allows you some freedom.... your time on the internet during your own free time. I couldn't get to the site to read the article, but my guess it that the ministry is trying to control what people do on the internet, and maybe they can justify their reasoning, but from my perspective, they are overstepping their boundaries.

Maybe later the website will load and I'll be able to actually read the article.

Re:Unfair to those who are responsible...

[CaseM]

I'll be able to actually read the article.

This is slashdot. Reading an article is never required to comment on its content.

Re:Unfair to those who are responsible...

[causality]

but my guess it that the ministry is trying to control what people do on the internet

That's about the size of it. It's amazing how threatened so many governments feel by the unrestricted free flow of information.

 

and maybe they can justify their reasoning, but from my perspective, they are overstepping their boundaries.

Of course they can make justifications (i.e. excuses) for it. Every last fascist, authoritarian, power-tripping fevered ego that ever existed has always had one powerful tool: a well-articulated bureaucracy. The tyrant (which may be a person or an organization) intentionally lies and makes excuses for why it's really an act of overwhelming benevolence. Then the more naive people eat it up and become what are known as "useful idiots".

We have those in the 'States too. They're generally the ones who don't study much history. When you point out a recurring pattern and explain why it's not a good thing to support, they call you a tinfoil hat-wearing nutter. They think every instance of an organization acting against our interests requires a pre-arranged back-room type of conspiracy, when really all it requires is a lot of selfishness and apathy. They definitely don't say "here is where you are mistaken, and this is my evidence or my sound reasoning". If hardcore tyranny should come to the USA it will be because they and their "we are somehow special, it can't ever never ever happen here so let's get complacent!" attitude played an instrumental role.

So yes, I am absolutely certain the Vietnamese government will justify (rationalize) their position. That's a prerequisite, a necessary ability they must secure prior to taking an action like this. That is how it has always happened throughout history. Politicians as people generally don't become dictators by openly announcing "hey, I want to be a tyrant, vote for me!" Likewise, governments as organizations don't generally expand their power by saying "we just want to oppress you". It's always for your own good, to protect you from something or another, to deal with some hated enemy, etc.

Re:Unfair to those who are responsible...

[derGoldstein]

When you use /. in "Strict" mode, you don't even get a link to the article...

Re:Only one reply possible for the Minister

[somersault]

Gaming over TOR? You'd be better off playing Correspondence Chess via snail mail.

Rescheduling

[mehrotra.akash]

So, now rather than the schedule being something like
School -> Homework -> Games
It will be
School->Games->Homework
Homework refers to anything productive done..
So, rather than spending the end of their day gaming, when you would be tired anyways, spend the time when you are not so tired gaming, and the time when you are tired doing productive stuff.
How is that good??

Re:Is it a virus? Is it an alien parasite?

[dkleinsc]

This is how real totalitarianism works. It's not necessarily how real socialism works.

For instance, by US standards, Norway is a socialist country (with high taxes, an extensive welfare state, etc). It's also a parliamentary democracy for intents and purposes. And Norway would never seriously propose that sort of law.

Re:It's for your own good

[Anonymous Coward]

What are you talking about? I've lived in Saigon--err, Thành ph H Chí Minh--for the past five years, I know hundreds of students, and I can attest that the party most definitely does _not_ skim off the best and brightest. This notion that a young generation of technocrats is populating the party apparatus is just that--a notion, and a ridiculous one at that. Smart kids with money go overseas for school, smart locals stuck here goto UTech, FTU or National, and no young person with a brain thinks to join the party--at least not in the cities. It might be a little different in the middle of nowhere--Ca Mau or somesuch--but hereabouts, and in Hanoi as well, the party is a dumping ground for risk adverse types looking to grind away at dull jobs for a decade or so, earning $100/month, until they're finally connected enough to begin sitting on committees and learning where the next zoned industrial areas will be--at which point the family cashes in big time.