“PLAYING ALL NIGHT”
An education ministry survey this April showed that 17 per cent of children aged six to 12 spend more than four hours a day gaming – up from nine per cent in 2017, with a similar jump seen among those aged 12 to 15.
“Games have clever systems to lure people into continuing to play … Including constantly updated apps and virtual money,” said Mia Itoshiro, who works with a group that gives seminars on preventing gaming addiction.
“Parents are increasingly consulting us saying ‘my children can’t go to school because they’re tired after playing all night’.”
China in November announced it had “solved” youth gaming addiction by limiting the time children can play online games to just three specified hours a week, enforced through facial recognition software and ID registration.
Meanwhile, South Korea last year removed a decade-long ban on PC-based online gaming for children under 16 between midnight and 6am, which local media had branded outdated and ineffective.
Japan has had no similar rules, and even a much-debated 2020 local ordinance that banned under-18s from playing more than an hour on weekdays had no enforcement mechanism.
Parents and experts say gaming can tip into obsessive behaviour in children because of other problems, including COVID-related stress or bullying.
The mother of a 13-year-old girl told AFP that video games became a “lifeline” for her daughter when she was struggling at school.
When she tried to take away the girl’s tablet, her daughter, then 10, replied: “If you deprive me of this, I’d want to die.”
“I was shocked to hear her say something like that,” the mother said.
Others who have experienced gaming addiction also say it became a lifeline for them during times of struggle.
Source: CNA
