South Korea is battling an epidemic of a new kind. According to government statistics, more than two per cent of people under the age of 40 are addicted to electronic gaming. A further ten per cent of young Koreans are considered to be "obsessed" with playing.
The situation is serious: ten South Koreans died last year of health problems related to gaming addiction. Alarmed, the government has set up an addiction hotline and opened a treatment centre in an effort to cope with the problem.
Two out of three of the country's homes have high-speed broadband connections, so South Koreans have easy access to games in cyberspace. For many young people, however, online gaming is more than just a hobby. Under enormous pressure at school and in their careers, they are looking to the virtual world for an escape from the stresses of daily life. In thousands of internet cafes across the country, they play games for hours, with few meal breaks and even less sleep. Side effects, such as depression and a detached sense of reality, are common. "I stopped changing my clothes," said 20-year-old Kim Myung, a therapy patient at a clinic. "I didn't go out. And I began to see myself as a character in my games," he told The Washington Post.
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