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A recent survey suggests a large portion of HCMC students have become gaming addicts and the numbers may not even touch the true story.
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| Many students in HCM City are game addicts |
The survey showed that 31.16% of all the students who responded have played online games before. 22,049 play two to three hours per day, while 1,111 students admit to playing for more than 10 hours per day.
However, according to Pham Thanh Long of the Municipal Department of Education and Training, the number of gamers in the metropolis is much higher than the numbers that have been reported.
He presented the data at a recent meeting in Ho Chi Minh City addressing the results of a survey handed out to 105,340 students at 58 schools.
Elaborating on this message, Nguyen Tan Tan, Deputy Principle of Vo Truong Toan High School, said, “We found that many students were hesitant to answer the survey truthfully, for fear that their teachers would learn of their habits and possibly discipline them.”
Perhaps the most shocking part of the survey revealed that 10,787 students admit to being habitual gamers for three to four years. In some of the most extreme cases, gamers said their parents would give them money even though they were aware all the allowance would be spent on gaming.
Nguyen Bac Dung, Principal of Tran Dai Nghia High School in Ho Chi Minh City, said that the questionnaires probably did not reflect the real numbers because many students might be self-conscious about their answers.
Dung commented that parents should pay more attention to their children’s habits, and that they should cooperate with schools, if necessary, to keep their children from a bad gaming habit.
“At our school we have set up a group of students to identify habitual gamers. They also look out for those who play violent games or spend so much time on video games that it takes away from their studies. Their job is to inform teachers of such cases and suggest possible solutions,” Dung said.
Huynh Van Minh, from Hoang Hoa Tham High School, suggests that schools should collaborate with the families of high-risk students to find the best way forward. She also says that internet stores should require that students give their personal information or identification cards before being allowed to play games.
Reflecting the number of gamers, Ho Chi Minh City now has a total of approximately 4,750 internet stores, and many of them violate regulations, allowing students stay out all night long playing unhealthy video games.