Community Support Services to Address Gaming Disorder Among Young Adults

4 Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song asked the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies and Minister for Health (a) what more community support services are being developed to address gaming disorder among young adults; (b) whether the Ministry has studied jurisdictions that implemented playtime limits or identity verification to curb problematic gaming; and (c) beyond public education, what direct measures are taken to ensure the gaming industry embeds responsible features in digital products.

The Senior Minister of State for Health (Dr Koh Poh Koon) (for the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies and Minister for Health): There are counselling and intervention programmes available in the community for those seeking help with gaming addiction, such as TOUCH Community Services and WE CARE Community Services.

The Government has also progressively introduced regulatory measures to better protect users from harms associated with gaming. The Code of Practice for Online Safety – App Distribution Services requires designated app stores to put in place measures to minimise users’ risk of exposure to harmful content, including those found in gaming apps. Designated app stores must also put in place age assurance measures by March 2026 to reduce the likelihood of young users accessing and downloading age-inappropriate apps, including gaming apps.

The Government will continue to monitor developments in other jurisdictions, including playtime limits or identity verification, and study if safeguards for online video games are required.

Mr Speaker: Mr Giam.

Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song (Aljunied): Sir, I think the Senior Minister of State for his reply. In view of the 10.3% prevalence rate for Internet gaming disorder among young adults in Singapore, will the Government take more urgent measures and more strictly regulate the gaming industry? For example, will it mandate game developers to have ethical design features and implement real world currency mandates, cool down periods and regulate gacha and pay-to-win mechanics, while protecting skill-based competitive gaming? This will help curb predatory dark patterns without stifling the e-sports industry.

And second, could the Senior Minister of State provide an assessment of whether the current intervention, such as generic cyber wellness talks, are effective and well-received by young people and their parents? Will the Ministry consider holding more technical workshops that shed light on how algorithms actually work and engineer addiction, so as to foster more genuine digital literacy by both gamers and their family members?

Dr Koh Poh Koon: Sir, the Member's first question would be more appropriately directed to the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI), which is the agency. and the Ministry responsible for working with the app developers on app design and how they put forth products onto the market. So, I urge the Member to perhaps raise the questions with MDDI in a subsequent Parliamentary Question.

But on his question of whether we will do more to educate and protect users from some of the harmful things that might be available on apps, the answer is yes. But we will need to look at how we can balance between increased protection for users versus personal autonomy, and the practicality of enforcement. Because at the end of the day when we – I am not sure whether the Member was referring to young adults as in adults or if he was referring to teens – because if we are talking about a young adult, he is still an adult and he does have personal autonomy. So, our approach has been to go more upstream to educate, to raise awareness, but also to work upstream with developers and app stores to make sure that there are some age appropriate safeguards, so that for those who are below a certain age threshold for which they are not deemed as adults, put some barriers in place so that they are not actually exposed to it when they are still teens or young young people.

So, I think that that is something that we will continue to do in a evidence-driven way – looking at the proportionality of the measures that we are going to do, but also make sure that it is feasible and ensure that there are no unintended consequences of any measures we put forth.