Laws vs computer games a disservice--Internet café chain

By Alexander F. Villafania INQ7.net

PASSING laws that ban computer games or Internet cafés near schools could be “a major disservice” to Filipinos, the president of an Internet café chain has said.

In an e-mail to INQ7.net, Raymond Ricafort, president of Netopia, said that the lawmakers have to conduct more comprehensive research and consult experts on the Internet and computer games before they craft laws banning them.

Ricafort was commenting on the recent filing of House Bill 1858, which bans Internet cafés and online computer games near schools.

In filing HB 1858, Representative Faysah Dumarpa said the presence of Internet cafés that offer online computer games near schools is leading to a decline in the quality of learning among Filipino students.
She was referring to the popular online role-playing game, Ragnarok, distributed by Level-Up Games.

Many Internet cafés in the Philippines draw the bulk of their income from students using their facilities to play online games.

“From what I see so far, the research on the subject is inadequate at best and to let these congressmen craft laws and leave the future of this country’s ICT [information and communications technology] or even retail policy [in] their hands without further understanding, will be a major disservice to our people,” Ricafort said.

Furthermore, he said that legislators fail to recognize that the 8,000 to 10,000 Internet cafés nationwide could be used as an alternative or to augment public school computer education.

“I do not agree with excessive gaming but gaming on its own has a lot of merits. Like anything in this world, it can be misused and abused,” Ricafort said.