Combat, cooking and cleaning tips to help cyber addicts in Vietnam
Updated
Vietnam has begun a new cyber addict treatment programme to help a growing number of teenagers hooked on web-based computer games. Modelled on similar programmes in China and South Korea, the ten day programme includes military training, lessons in how to cook and clean, team building, community work, and it ends with a public apology.
Presenter: Claudette Werden
Speakers: Nguyen Thie Dieu Hanh, coordinator, cyber addiction treatment programme, Vietnam
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NGUYEN: The big problem is many teenagers nowadays they don't care about their family, they just want to play game on internet to play online game, don't want to work in the family and just think about themselves so we have some programs, some activities to remind them about their family and tell them to know that family is the most important in their life.
WERDEN: How successful has your program been, how many teenagers have gone through the program?
NGUYEN: The first class has 210 teenagers and the second class we have 75 teenagers
WERDEN: And how long do they spend doing the army or training exercises?
NGUYEN: Training, the training course in the army last about 6 days.
WERDEN: What kind of activities do they do - is it for physical exercise or discipline?
NGUYEN: Physical exercise, they will learn about the political issues, about the image of soldiers, the characteristics of soldiers and they have to train like in the battle, they use gun. Because teenagers in Vietnam nowadays they are living in the better life than the old [times] so they don't know how to arrange their life, they just wake up and go to school, eat and play and enjoy the life, they don't know how to tidy the bed or their closet. We teach them how to wash their clothes by hand and many things.
WERDEN: Okay and how old are these teenagers?
NGUYEN: Their age from 12 to 20
WERDEN: And how many teenagers do you think have this problem in Vietnam?
NGUYEN: In Vietnam nowadays I think about 70 per cent of teenagers are playing games and don't care about outside activities.
WERDEN: And for these 10 days do they see their parents?
NGUYEN: When the teenagers are in the army the parents cannot see them, we just invite parents come at the end of this program. They will get on the stage and speak out their mistake in the past and say sorry to everybody and the other people will open their hands, open their hearts to welcome a new person who has admitted their mistakes and welcome them to a new life. And one more thing I want to tell you, is about letter. They will write a letter to send to their parents. In Vietnam, I think its the same as the Western countries, nowadays they have the technology, the internet so they don't know how to write a handwritten letter, so in this program we record about this activity and we ask them to write a letter to their family
