Wednesday, December 08, 2010

9% of kids gaming addicts

NEARLY 9 per cent of young people in Singapore are 'pathological gamers' - addicts who spend hours playing video games, and whose schoolwork and social skills suffer as a result.

They play for about 37.5 hours each week, double the 18.8 hours spent by non-addicts on such games, according to a recent study funded by the Education Ministry and Media Development Authority.

Pathological gamers are also more likely to have poorer social skills, suffer from hand and wrist pain, sleep too little and face problems in school.

For example, they may neglect doing homework, said the study helmed by Dr Angeline Khoo of the National Institute of Education (NIE).

Researchers from NIE, the National University of Singapore, Iowa State University and Hong Kong Polytechnic University were roped in to conduct the study. The findings were published in Annals, a journal by the Academy of Medicine here.

Nearly 3,000 primary and secondary schoolchildren took part in the study, which was conducted from June last year to September this year.

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if i have kids.. I will NEVER LET THEM PLAY GAMES.
except causual games that do not need to spend too much time..
no online games like warcraft whatsoever...
I am not a big fan of games. I do not encourage, I cannot stop people BUT I can prevent it from starting

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