Digital Nation

After watching a documentary ("Digital Nation") on the evolution of the digital world and how the Internet has created potential problems for its users, I couldn't help but think of one segment where it discussed the online gaming problem in South Korea. There are Internet shops where kids can go and stay for hours and sometimes even days. The segment also introduced to us a young South Korean boy who constantly plays games and has dropped from the top half of his class to the bottom half in school. Even the relationship between he and his mother is strained because of his excessive use of video games.

South Korea decided to call Internet addiction a psychiatric disorder; it not only affects the mind but the senses as well. Performance in school decreases, eye sight and hearing are damaged, and physical activity is almost non-existent. So what does South Korea do? They fix the problem by creating Internet recovery camps. Yes, there are actual recovery clinics for individuals who want to learn how to manage and limit the amount of time they spend on the Internet. There are even some recovery camps in the US!

Is excessive use of the Internet an actual addiction, and, if it is, are recovery camps the best way to go about curing these individuals? These camps are structured like clinics for recovering drug addicts. That's right: according to places like South Korea, Internet addiction should be treated like it's a drug addiction. I know that sounds crazy, but that's precisely what these Internet recovery camps are: rehab clinics.

I understand there are some adults who are overly dependent on the Internet to a point where it runs their entire lives; however, these clinics should be for them and them alone. Young boys should not be wasting their time going to these clinics. Instead, their PARENTS should be the ones taking care of the situation. The young Korean boy's mom is distraught over her son's situation and decided to send him to one of these camps. I've got an idea: why doesn't the mom actually intervene in her child's life and take the Internet away from him? In Internet addiction involving kids, it should be the parents' job to monitor their children's Internet use, much like they would with homework or chores. In my opinion, these camps for kids are only here because of bad parenting. Just pull the plug on your child's Internet! Yes they need to learn and grow on their own, but children need guidance from their parents.

The only people who should attend these Internet recovery clinics are those individuals (not children) whose lives are completely consumed by the Internet, and it is affecting their physical and mental health, as well as the people around them. Other than those individuals, these camps are doing absolutely nothing for these children other than delaying the inevitable. They interviewed the Korean boy during his tenure at the camp, and instead of actually making progress, all the boy did was think about online gaming. When he was asked if this camp will ultimately help him, the young boy thought he would go right back to gaming once the clinic was over. This is exactly why parents should take some initiative and protect their kids from these types of things. Camps won't do anything for children: they need their parents. And it is the parents' fault for not intervening in their children's lives.