Vietnamese legislators openly criticized a government minister for failing to act to regulate online games, reports the Thanh Nien News.

Minister of Information and Communications Le Doan Hop (left) addressed the National Assembly last week to discuss plans to manage online gaming. However, representative Nguyen Ngoc Dao claimed that online games caused "moral and mental erosion" and argued that Hop's strategy was insufficient.

Hop told legislators that online games could not be banned and began to speak of their advantages and disadvantages. Those comments were cut short by another representative, Nguyen Van Thuan, who wanted to hear more about enforcement of regulations directed at online games:

The representatives were not asking about the pros and cons of online games but they wanted to know if the ministry was responsible for the current situation.

Management is supposed to include the issuing of regulations and the enforcement of them but the minister hasn’t talked about enforcement.

Malaysia's New Straits Times ran a front page article yesterday which urged parents to monitor the video games that their children play.

Muhammad Sha'ani Abdullah (left), who heads the National Consumer Complaints Centre, said that neither parents nor retailers are taking game ratings seriously enough:

These classifications are given by the producers of the games but when they are sold, traders rarely make it a practice to sell according to the recommended age group. They do not see how serious an impact it can have on children...

It is similar to what happened when junk food and fast food became available to children. We are now seeing many obese children. Similarly, in 20 years, we may have adults who practise the wrong values.

 

There is no law on video games. Therefore, these ratings must be actively promoted to parents.

The Times also quotes an unnamed consumer advocate:

The onus is on parents. Just as many failed to realise the dangers posed by junk food, today's parents are also failing to realise the dangers of violent video games and television shows... for video games, it is the parents' duty to ensure they don't contain violent content.

Parents must ensure they are not building a generation of fat, violent kids.

Apparently, games sold in the Malaysian market carry ESRB ratings. Complicating the issue of rating enforcement, however, is the wide availability of pirated games in Malaysia.

Via: Nine Over Ten

GP sister-site GameCulture, citing Indian newspaper The Hindu, reports that Taliban thugs burned down a video game shop as part of a sweep through the Swat Valley in northwestern Pakistan.

Stores selling videos and electronics were also attacked.

An editorial in Bangladesh newspaper The New Nation draws on every negative cliche you've ever heard - and some you probably haven't - to indict video games for a variety of social ills.

Linking games to violence, sex, addiction, poor grades and social isolation? Not new.

Swollen fingers? Muscle problems? Lying? Stealing money to play games? Give the author points for originality, at least. From the editorial:

Playing video games is an addiction...[a doctor said] "There arise some physical problems too. If children play video games for a long time, their fingers get swollen and they face problems in their muscles. These may lead to serious physical problems in the future."

Psychologically, Dr Tamanna says, the consequence is even worse. Due to these games, children get attracted to violence and sex... The children who play at shops have to lie or steal money... When children keep on playing games, they cannot control themselves... electric waves of brains get changed... For playing too much of games, children can't be attentive to their studies... [they] become disobedient... social interaction... gets lesser...

 

...Subconsciously, children are learning crimes. These games are destroying children's sympathy for others... Children are getting encouraged in fighting. They are not learning to see a wrong thing as wrong...

GP: There is one solid point in all of this, however. Apparently, piracy is big in Banladesh and the writer complains that kids are buying plain CDs with no parental advisories visible.