A Study on Suicide by Jianjun Li

Author:Jianjun Li
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789811394997
Publisher: Springer Singapore

4.4 Addiction to Online Games

As computer and the Internet spread wider, Internet cafés that mainly cater to youths have come out in large numbers all over the Chinese mainland. For minors whose personalities are not yet fully developed, addictions to the Internet and video games can easily lead to personality disorders or defects. More than half of patients with Internet addiction syndrome are minors. As minors tend to be highly curious, lack of self-restraint, and not fully able to tell right from wrong, Internet access can make it extremely easy for them to indulge in games, chatting, and various negative online contents. According to a survey conducted by the telecommunications authorities in 2001, pornography sites and columns accounted for 75% of online cultural content, “decadent content” accounted for 66, and 47 and 45% [of users] engaged in flame wars on bulletin boards and “making friends in an irresponsible manner” in chat rooms, respectively.94 Some Internet café owners allow minors to spend long hours online playing video games or browsing pornographic materials for economic gains or due to neglect. A number of minors have suddenly gone blind after spending dozens of hours at a stretch in an Internet café. In a bid to help his/her child who was a student at a key high school) wean off the Internet, one parent brought the child on a number of holiday tours within only six months; parents have also been known to take the keyboard of their family computer with them to work as they feared that their children would be misled by online content at home when they are not there. No wonder, then, at the turn of the century the issues of video games and Internet café management had become hot topics of discussion among National People’s Congress deputies and members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Such discussions have in turn given rise to “Proposal No. 1” that aims to strengthen management over games, machines, and Internet cafés.

At the 2002 CPPCC meeting, Member Wen Kegang made a strong call for actions so that “Internet cafés would not enmesh our children.” According to Wen, there were 1900 Internet cafés in Beijing and nearly half were illegal; among the 1.71 million primary and high school students in the city, three hundred thousand had used the Internet, about half of them used Internet cafés, and a hundred thousand often play games and chat online. Many children were addicted to Internet cafés, but these places were often poorly equipped and with unhealthy environments, probably with fire hazards. There was a tragic case of a fire at an Internet café in Beijing with heavy casualties. As such, Internet cafés can be very detrimental to the healthy growth of young people. What Wen mentioned was only an incomplete list of the harms that Internet cafés can bring. There are numerous cases of youth suicide related to long periods of time spent at Internet cafés and arcades.

Since the 1980s, video games have become popular among children and youths in advanced nations and the same occurred to China over the past decade.

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