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Online games such as World of Warcraft could be grouped with gambling, drugs and alcohol as an antisocial addiction under laws being considered in South Korea.

A bill going through the country's Parliament has outraged online gamers, the best of whom can gain wealth and status equivalent to sports stars in the Asian country.

The industry earned more cash from abroad for South Korea than the YouTube sensation "Gangnam Style," K-pop music, films and other cultural exports combined last year.

But a clampdown has won the support of many parents, religious groups and doctors who criticise the gaming industry as a threat to family and social order.

Planned legislation includes provisions to limit advertising, while a separate bill would take one percent of the gaming industry's revenue to create a fund to curb addiction.

The uproar over the legislation highlights conflicting social and economic priorities in technology-soaked South Korea. Internet entrepreneurs are prized as a source of innovation in an economy dominated by technology, but conservative lawmakers and many parents say online obsessions are taking a growing toll on schooling, families and workplaces.

"We need to create a clean Korea free from the four addictions," Hwang Woo-yea, a top lawmaker in the ruling party said of gaming in a recent speech.

Moral panic has been fuelled by tragedies related to gaming in the country. In one incident, the infant daughter of an online gamer starved to death after being neglected.

In 2011, a law banning under-16s from gaming between midnight and dawn was passed, but is now being appealed at South Korea's Constitutional Court.

"There is a huge prejudice that gaming is harmful," said Lee Byung-chan, an attorney involved in the Constitutional Court case. "Games are as harmful as alcohol, drugs and gambling, that's the prejudice."

A study commissioned by the South Korean government found 125,000 teenagers aged 10-19 needed treatment for excessive gaming or were deemed to be at risk of addiction - two per cent of the population that age.

"My parents tried to stop me but I kept playing. Even the government wouldn't have stopped me," said Shin Minchul, a 21-year-old college student recalling his past as a heavy gamer.

By high school, he was playing World of Warcraft for up to 15 hours straight.

Supporters of the bill say cases like his show why curbs are needed. Kim Min-sun, a mother of two, said online games take children away from real life.

"Without online games, kids would talk to their mother and play," she said.

Others say South Korea should do more to address the factors behind online game addiction, such as hyper competitive education and a dearth of other leisure options for teenagers.

South Korea had the lowest percentage of students who reported being happy at school in 2012 among 65 countries surveyed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.