VietNamNet Bridge – After playing an online game for three consecutive hours, a 11th grader in HCM City suffered from brain haemorrhage, which has left him in a permanent vegetative state.

 

The victim is a 16-year-old schoolboy, an 11th grader at the Nguyen Hue High School in District 9, HCM City.

 

The boy and his friend played an online game called Warcraft for three hours in the afternoon of October 24, at an Internet café. They left the Internet café because they ran out of money.

 

According to the victim’s friends, after walking for several hundreds of meters, the boy said he had a headache and felt dizzy. Later, he was brought to hospital and diagnosed with brain haemorrhage.

 

The boy’s father said his son used to be a very good student but since he started playing games, when he was an 8th grader, his grades have deteriorated. The boy is now at home, but still in a vegetative state.

 

This is not the first victim of online games reported in Vietnam. In January 2010, a male student from the Duy Tan University in the central city of Da Nang suddenly died at his room while playing online games.

 

The Vietnam Institute of Social Sciences last week released its survey on the effect of online games on students in six provinces and cities of Vietnam.

 

The survey claims that while online games are highly popular with students, there is a low rate of addiction among them.

 

Findings of the one-month survey revealed that more than 71 percent of people aged under 20 play online games. Secondary school students between 16 and 20 years old were the largest group of players, accounting for 42 percent of the total.

 

However, school students only ranked third in terms of hours spent daily on online gaming. White-collar workers came first, followed byunemployed and low-income people.

 

Each player was reported to spend more than 12 hours a week on online games. More than 53 per cent of school students spent less than 10 hours per week.

 

The study reported that only 0.3 percent of players admitted to playing games between 11pm to 6am. Most chose internet cafes for their playing activities.

 

Although more than half said they felt relaxed after playing games, online games were not their favourite entertainment. Nearly 95 percent chose other activities during their free time.

 

However, many experts said that they are skeptical about the survey and that it is “unreliable”.

 

PV