根据新加坡媒体报道，在亚洲有一名女婴儿活活被饿死的时候，她的父母却专注于“抚养”在线虚拟儿童；一个男孩不满大人指责其过度沉迷游戏而弑母并自杀。这些报道反映了一个现状，即亚洲人正因过度沉迷于互联网技术而付出代价。

目前智能手机在亚太地区每年的销量都超过了1亿部，在近五年的时间内更是翻了2倍，这个数据使该地区成为了现今全球最大的“先进移动设备”市场。

在社交网站、手机游戏与电信服务急剧发展的时代，许多亚洲年轻人发现自己几乎寸步难离手机或者掌上电脑等移动设备。

亚洲青少年手机用户

一位22岁的新加坡大学生汉娜·罗珊娜（Hanna Ruslana）表示，“你可能会认为我上瘾了，但是我无所谓。”汉娜在Twitter结识的好友甚至比她在学校的朋友还多。她至少每隔15分钟就会看一下iPhone，并且一直保持登录Facebook、Twitter、Foursquare以及Linkedln。如果哪一天自己的Twitter帐号被冻结了，那么她和朋友就会陷入抓狂的焦虑中。

但比起发生在韩国的一例惨剧，汉娜的症状其实微乎其微。

去年12月，一位韩国母亲因为长时间沉溺于网络游戏而厌世，亲手杀死了自己三岁大的儿子。

在此之前，韩国还有一个15岁大的男孩因无法忍受母亲斥责自己过度沉迷于网络，所以杀死母亲并最终自杀。

2010年5月，一名41岁的韩国男子与他的妻子因为在网上“抚养”了一个虚拟孩童，疏于照顾自己的亲生女儿导致她活活饿死，因此被判处了有期徒刑2年。

据首尔政府估计，在这个拥有5000万人口的国家里，至少有200万用户沉迷于网络。

从今年开始，韩国政策将向游戏玩家、其他上网成瘾者提供合意关闭（consensual shutdown）和网络疲劳（Internet Fatigue）等免费软件以控制他们的上网时间。韩国国会还打算出台一部“Cinderella”法律以此禁止那些未满15周岁的青少年在午夜至凌晨6点上网玩游戏。

根据新加坡年初的调查表明， 在600所大学和技术学院的学生，有88%的学生而更喜欢通过线上交流，而不是面对面地与人交谈。超过40%的调查对象表示他们一天内的手机上网时间至少有四个小时。调查称，平均每个新加坡人就有1.4部手机，而这些手机大部分都带有上网功能。

新加坡莱佛士医院(Raffles Hospital)的患者管理服务主任Ho Kok Yuen认为，这种对网络技术的过度沉迷与毒品成瘾一样，也需要采取强制性的药物治疗。他表示，“这已经是一种异常行为了。这种异常的强迫行为将可能伤害到患者身边的亲友。”

日本内务部也表示，年轻人过度沉迷于游戏或者移动网络有可能使他们的人格变得极端麻木，而且还会严重影响他们的正常社交以及身心健康。日本全国消费者事务中心(National Consumer Affairs Center in Japan)表示2010年在网上咨询相关游戏信息的用户人数，已从2009年的1437人上升至了1692人，并且其中绝大部分还是年轻人。

在马来西亚，社交网站也极其受欢迎。根据全球市场研究公司TNS在2010年11月的调查表明，马来西亚人具有极强的网络社交能力，平均每个人至少有233名网友，远高于中国和日本用户（游戏邦注：中国用户平均拥有68名网友，日本用户为29名）。

马来亚大学的网瘾研究中心表示，他们在2009年开始研究Facebook网瘾现象时就已经发现了50多个相关案例，去年增加到70个案例，而且绝大部分涉及青少年用户。该中心的副协调员Muhammad Muhsin Ahmad Zahari所称，“因为年轻人经常接触互联网和社交网站，所以他们会沉迷于网络也就不足以为奇了。他们完全融入了网络世界，却忽视了现实生活中的其他社交方式。”（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Technology addiction takes toll in Asia

SINGAPORE — A baby girl starves to death as her parents raise a virtual child online; a boy scolded for excessive gaming kills his mother then commits suicide — technology addiction is taking a toll in Asia.

With more 100 million “smartphones” now sold annually in the Asia-Pacific region — expected to double in five years’ time — it is the world’s largest market for advanced mobile devices.

And as social networking sites and mobile games explode in tandem with the telecom industry, many young Asians are finding it tough to cope without a gadget in hand or a computer within reach.

“I guess you can call me addicted, fine,” admitted 22-year-old Singaporean university student Hanna Ruslana, who has befriended more schoolmates on Twitter than on campus.

She checks her iPhone at least every 15 minutes and maintains accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and LinkedIn.

When Twitter freezes, she and her friends plunge into an anxious wait.

But hers is a mild case compared to tragic examples in South Korea, one of the world’s most electronically-connected societies.

Last December, a mother was arrested for allegedly killing her three-year-old son while she was tired from Internet game-playing.

A month earlier, a 15-year-old boy committed suicide after killing his mother for scolding him over his gaming habits.

In May 2010, a 41-year-old South Korean man was sentenced to two years in jail after he and his wife left their baby daughter to die of malnutrition while raising a virtual child on the Internet.

The Seoul government estimates the number of web addicts at about two million in a nation of almost 50 million.

From this year, it will offer free software to people at risk to limit the time they spend on the web.

Parliament is also about to consider a “Cinderella” law which would ban those aged under 15 from playing online games between midnight and 6.00 am.

In Singapore, a survey conducted on 600 university and polytechnic students earlier this year showed 88 percent of them preferred communicating through technology over face-to-face chats.

More than 40 percent of respondents spent more than four hours a day glued to their mobile phones in a country where there are now 1.4 mobile phones per person, most of them web-enabled.

Clinical director of privately-owned Raffles Hospital’s pain management service Ho Kok Yuen likened the craving felt by tech addicts for their hit to drug addicts’ “compulsive need to obtain certain medication”.

“So it becomes abnormal behavior, where the compulsive behavior will lead to harm to a person or to people around him or her,” he told AFP.

In Japan, the internal affairs ministry has warned that young people’s addiction to gaming and mobile phones can make them apathetic and harm their social relations and health.

The National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan said cases brought to it for consultation on online games-related concerns rose to 1,692 in 2010, up from 1,437 in 2009, many of them involving youths.

In Malaysia, the population has embraced social networking sites enthusiastically.

According to a study released by global research firm TNS in November 2010, Malaysians are the most sociable people on the Internet with an average of 233 friends in their network, compared to 68 in China and just 29 in Japan.

The University Malaya Centre of Addiction Sciences said it received about 50 cases when it began a study on addiction to social networking giant Facebook in 2009, and the cases increased to about 70 last year, most involving young people.

“It is more common among youth because they have more exposure to the Internet and social networking sites,” said Muhammad Muhsin Ahmad Zahari, deputy chief coordinator of the centre.

“They are more inclined to attach themselves to the computer and ignore other modes of socialising.”（source:google）