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Date: August 17th, 2001, Bangkok Post

Parents warned about traps for naive and vulnerable

Children can become dehumanised and besotted with screen

Anjira Assavanonda

Computers and the Internet are like a two-sided coin which can be harmful to children if parents are not smart enough, parents were warned.

Concerns were raised at a seminar on ``The Fate of Children in the Computer Age'' run by the Families' Network Foundation and Mental Health Department.

Most speakers agreed on the advantages, including transmission of information and knowledge, and harmonising society by providing space for people to let off steam.

Computers could also help children with learning disabilities.

On the debit side, however, computers could catch out the naive and vulnerable.

Porn Phan-osot, of Waldorf Panyothai Foundation, said a computer could erode a child's patience.

``Children can't stand waiting for anything a long time.

``They could also lose their interaction with other people if their communication is limited to the computer screen.''

Children could become addicted to a computer like some could drugs.

Parents said they grew concerned after their children became addicted to the two most popular computer games, Counter Strike and Half Life.

One mother said she felt the game made her eight year-old son aggressive. A father of three children said two of his kids were so besotted that nothing he did could distract them.

Yongyuth Wongpiromsarn, director of Mental Health Development Office, said young people were attracted to computers because they responded to all their instinctive desires: sex, excitement, and aggression.

``If children are allowed to play computers for a long time, they will lose their self-control and become addicted.''

Kitti Kanphai, lecturer at Chulalongkorn university's mass communication faculty, said pornographic websites were another danger.

Children could grow obsessed with the computer, treating it as a human, a friend who consoled them in times of trouble.

They could become dehumanized and trapped in the virtual world.

Euajit Virojtrairat, of Sukhothai Thammathiraj university's faculty of mass communication, said people need computer literacy skills to get the best out of the experience.

Parents should impress on children that computers could provide benefits other than a space to chat or play games.

``Don't blame technology if we haven't done enough to prepare our children,'' said Ms Euajit.

Sukonthajit Wongphuek, of Gajidrid Educational Theatre Company, said the problems rested with parents who lacked wisdom to use computers effectively.