backpacker drowns in Vietnam boat tragedy

much for those late night gaming sessions in Vietnam. The country is placing a ban on all online gaming activity from 10 PM to 8 AM in order to protect the youth from wasting their brains, according to the Daily News. "Provincial departments of information and communication will inspect on-line games activities nationwide and deal with organisations that violate regulations by cancelling their services," Vietnamese deputy minister Le Nam Thang said, adding that officials have tried other methods which have not proven effective.



While being addicted to gaming at a young age is bad, the fact that a country puts a ban on all gaming for everyone is a travesty. Adults should at least have the right to play whenever the want and should be punished for illegal activities (such as illegal online betting) not for just playing a few hours than what some might consider normal. It should be up to children's parents to decide when and where their offspring should be allowed to play, not the government.



According to the article, internet service providers have until March 3 to comply with the shut off or they will be cut off by the Vietnamese government. Gamasutra points out that China has put stringent restrictions on their country's youth gamers including making games with "unwholesome" content including pornography, violence, gambling, cults and material classified as "cruel" or "horrifying" illegal, outlawing real currency in games in lieu of virtual currency and put heavy restrictions on minors "buying" products in the gaming world, but none seem as extreme - or unwarranted - as this.

Is the 10PM curfew too much governmental influence in people's lives or a necessary evil to curb online gaming addiction?







Irvine
backpacker drowns in Vietnam boat tragedy
By John Woods, Irvine Herald, 25 February 2011



IRVINE man Stuart McCormick died in the Vietnam boat tragedy just a few days before he was due to be reunited with his new-found sweetheart.

Backpacker Stuart, from Pennyvennie Way, was one of 11 tourists and a guide who perished as they slept in their cabins below deck when their wooden vessel started taking in water while anchored in Halong Bay on Thursday morning. Stuart, 30, paid a few pounds for the voyage on the Truong Hai round the bay, a picture-postcard inlet featuring jagged limestone rock formations which has been used as backdrop in a number of films and was used by Top Gear for a special episode in 2008.
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