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Published on November 17, 2007

Online games that involve violence, fantasy, cop-shooting, stripping and abducting young women are popular among Thai youths, while some use the Internet as a means to hook up with others for sex, a poll revealed yesterday.

Meanwhile the National Committee on Safe and Creative Media is gathering information on Internet cafes and computer game shops to implement a red (dangerous) or green (safe) sticker to identify these venues next year.

Ladda Tangsupachai, 58, head of the Culture Ministry's Cultural Surveillance Department, said the committee, on which she served as secretary, had assigned the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth) and the Abac Poll to survey Internet use and impact among 1,114 Thais aged 15 to 24 in Bangkok and surrounding areas from October 15 to 17.

Most youths used the Internet to search for information, play online games and download music or movies, the poll found. The respondents also went online while at schools and educational institutions (75 per cent) followed by shopping malls (58 per cent) and homes (48 per cent). Slightly less than a third said their parents knew in detail which websites they had visited while some 74 per cent said they did not.

The online-game-playing respondents also ranked their favourite themes as fighting, fantasy worlds, cop-shooting, stripping and abducting young women. The respondents said playing online games was useful (47 per cent) because it relaxed them and developed their creativity while another 20 per cent said it was a waste of time and led to obsessions.

Over half (53 per cent) of the youths said they had seen obscene or pornographic materials on the Internet, including downloading porn pictures or clips (64 per cent), playing games on pornographic sites (16 per cent), chatting about sex with others (13 per cent), uploading sexual pictures or message onto websites (11 per cent), and using webcam services such as camfrog (6 per cent).

Youths with access to obscene material said they found out about such sites by accident (52 per cent) followed by peer recommendations (45 per cent), web boards (30 per cent) and search engines (29 per cent), the poll found.

Moreover, 27 per cent of male respondents and 8 per cent of female admitted they had sex with people they had met online. Of this group, 28 per cent of males and 59.4 per cent of females said the sex was not consensual.

Acknowledging that pornographic material contributed to sex crimes and lowered morality in general, the respondents expressed low confidence in law enforcement to efficiently crack down on these websites.

They suggested the government should educate Thai youths to build immunity to such vices, crack down on such websites and strictly enforce the law.

Ladda said the Safe Media Committee also assigned the Culture Ministry to conclude the issue about Internet cafés and computer-game shops, as they planned to launch a campaign persuading business-owners to adjust Internet café and computer-game services to be of the same standard.

Next year the committee and officials will visit Internet cafés and computer-game shops and allocate the safe and creative green sticker, which should get more parents and children to use the services there.

Meanwhile, Microsoft and Asiasoft said they would lower the programme prices for these venues.

Those given a red sticker, indicating inappropriate services, will face legal action by the police.

Pakamas Jaichalard

 The Nation