Cameras to monitor online gaming, Internet cafes: Thai Culture Ministry

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Cameras to monitor online gaming, Internet cafes
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The Culture Ministry is thinking about putting in place a surveillance programme that would link security cameras at some 30,000 online gaming shops and Internet cafes across the nation.

The link-up, which would also have a central website carrying information about registered shops, aims to check if minors are allowed to use the services outside legal hours, Department of Cultural Promotion chief Chai Nakhonchai said.

Officials are carrying out a feasibility report on the idea, he added.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Cameras-to-monitor-online-gaming-Internet-cafes-30238503.html


-- The Nation 2014-07-15

[Metapod]

terrible idea.

[terryp]

big brother comes to thailand ...one of the reasons i came here was to get away from all this kind of garbage

[siampolee]

Wouldn't it be more efective to monitor those sites via the service provider.

According to that which we were told last year there was indeed a plethora of bodies involved in monitoring sites that were seen as ''damaging'' to Thailand and its institutions socially and politically.

The budget was allocated, so where are those people and their monitoring systems now or in reality were they ever there at all ?

Edited July 15, 2014 by siampolee

[englishoak]

Wouldn't it be more efective to monitor those sites via the service provider.

According to that which we were told last year there was indeed a plethora of bodies involved in monitoring sites that were seen as ''damaging'' to Thailand and its institutions socailly and politically.

The budget was allocated, so where are those people and their monitoring systems now or in reality were they ever there at all ?

Better still just enforce age and time laws, some shops do in places but usually you can tell a shop that dosnt... you cant get in the door let alone a seat 7pm.. I believe the cut off is 6pm or something like that.

cameras is a real slippery slope to go down imho.

[Hawk]

And who is going to be manning these thousands of cameras day after day?

[Pib]

big brother comes to thailand ...one of the reasons i came here was to get away from all this kind of garbage

And big brother appears to be the "Culture" Ministry.

[SoFarAndNear]

big brother comes to thailand ...one of the reasons i came here was to get away from all this kind of garbage

Big brother is in Thialdn already for a long time...

[jaltsc]

"The Culture Ministry is thinking about putting in place a surveillance programme that would link security cameras at some 30,000 online gaming shops and Internet cafes across the nation."

That's nice. Creating a new industry. Thailand, the Hub of Underground Internet Cafes.

[thesetat2013]

Seriously though. If they use cameras to monitor internet cafes there will be absolutely no privacy for personal information from patrons. Would you go to a cafe and log into any website knowing the gov is recording your every action on tape?

Sent from my GT-S5310 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[WhizBang]

Are cameras the answer? Why not just have the police do random spot checks. Seems like an easier and more cost effective solution.

[klauskunkel]

It appears to be increasingly difficult for Thai officials to make that extra coin they were used to all these years. So, who better than the Thai CULTURE Ministry wanting to monitor internet cafes, in order to find out how the Thai ladies get their money from abroad...

See, they can be proactive i they really want to...just wait for the email to turn up in your inbox:

Honey, the buffalo ate my mobile, please send money to somchaiatthaiculturemin, love you long time!

they will refine it eventually.

Edited July 15, 2014 by klauskunkel

[Emster23]

Wonder who owns company that will sell the cameras to those 30k shops? Cheaper than tablets, but sure stinks of tea money and ineptitude. Better be HD cameras too.... They expect to be able to tell who is gambling vs surfing while covering how many different screens at a shop? Probably got idea from Bourne movie series.....

[indothai]

They've seen too many "tech" movies and "CSI" shows. So, they are going to monitor 30k "registered" shops...LOL, how about the unregisted ones?

BTW, who's going to monitor those camera's? A program?

So, let me understand this. I can open a shop, register it, get the gov to install those camera's and be completely free of libel should a minor walks in. hmm.. me thinks to open a shop tomorrow.

[lostsoul49]

Stupid idea number 146.

So based on a small internet cafe having say 10 terminals and a large one having 20, the average being 15 across the board.

That's up to 450,000 terminals to monitor at peak times...

Man. you would have to be one unlucky SOB to get caught.

Also, if people have money for online gambling, then surely they have the money to pay for a used PC at a cost of about 2000 baht (or less) and a 199 baht a month internet connection. What is stopping them setting up at home?

Edited July 15, 2014 by lostsoul49

[sanuk711]

Are cameras the answer? Why not just have the police do random spot checks. Seems like an easier and more cost effective solution.

It probably would be more effective if they weren't just going there to pick up a large envelope.....................................

[rickirs]

How would this work at open-air cafes in shopping malls that provide free wi-fi to customers? Maybe mount 360-degree cameras on poles throughout the cafe area sufficient to sweep all the entire table and chair areas?

What about businesses that provide general public wi-fi such as shopping malls and airports? Will the Ministry saturate the areas with thoudands of cameras, maybe even in the toilet areas? Bangkok City authorities have been talking about providing citywide wi-fi access; will the Ministry saturate the whole city with tens of thousands of cameras? And if wi-fi or 3G can be received within private and public modes of transportation, will the Ministry also place cameras in every mode of transportation like your car, BTS, SRT, MRT, etc.? Then there's your home ...... ?

And maybe use of those cameras might eventually be extended to monitor people for "happiness" too. And where unhappiness is found, the government can dispatch "Happiness Squads" to resolve conflicts.

[Basil B]

The next scam, agent (secret) for on line bookies goes into internet cafe, goes on line and places large fictitious bet for 1000/1 outsider, three legged horse in the in the 3:20 at Sandown.

[pisico]

big brother comes to thailand ...one of the reasons i came here was to get away from all this kind of garbage

Thai culture: That says it all...

Meanwhile... in the Deep South more innocent people and rangers and teachers and children are assassinated on a daily basis...

Meanwhile... every day thousands and thousand of teenagers ride motorcycles at all hours of day and night without helmets and without licenses...

Meanwhile... in the evening teenagers flock to the sidewalk improvised bars where not only alcohol is served...

Meanwhile... the bulk of the population is English illiterate although English is the official language of the Asian Economic Community about to kick in a few months away...

Meanwhile....

Nothing like these priorities to show that an administration "really" cares.

[nahkit]

Stupid idea number 146.

So based on a small internet cafe having say 10 terminals and a large one having 20, the average being 15 across the board.

That's up to 450,000 terminals to monitor at peak times...

Man. you would have to be one unlucky SOB to get caught.

Also, if people have money for online gambling, then surely they have the money to pay for a used PC at a cost of about 2000 baht (or less) and a 199 baht a month internet connection. What is stopping them setting up at home?

The headline says they want to monitor online gaming, it doesn't mention online gambling.

[nahkit]

Wouldn't it be more efective to monitor those sites via the service provider.

According to that which we were told last year there was indeed a plethora of bodies involved in monitoring sites that were seen as ''damaging'' to Thailand and its institutions socially and politically.

The budget was allocated, so where are those people and their monitoring systems now or in reality were they ever there at all ?

How would the service provider monitor the age of the people playing the online games?

As I understand it, children under 15 years of age have to stop at 8pm, 15-18 years old can play until 10pm.

[wotaplonker]

all they will be doing is creating what we have in the 'west' large amorphous government institutions whose only

interest is the survival and growth of that institution, good overpaid jobs for any number of unproductive jobsworths, 'middle' management,

(and in Thailand legalized corruption) costing billions and achieving nothing. One of the major reasons in fact why communism failed in Russia.