NCSS to fund more agencies tackling gaming, porn and gambling addiction

Singapore – The National Council of Social Service (NCSS) is funding more agencies to help people with behavioural addictions, amid growing numbers of problematic pornography consumption, and excessive gaming and gambling cases.

It is spending $5.6 million over three years to fund the Addiction Support Programme for Inclusion, Recovery and Empowerment (ASPIRE).

In 2024, the social service agencies (SSAs) that report to NCSS saw more than 780 new cases of behavioural addictions – about a 50 per cent increase from the over 520 new cases in 2020.

Identifying behavioural addiction support as an emerging unmet need, NCSS has increased its funding to expand the number of SSAs from which people can seek help and get the right support earlier.

It has been funding support services at We Care Community Services for substance and behavioural addictions.

Now, ASPIRE will fund another nine SSAs to help those struggling with behavioural addictions.

The 10 SSAs under ASPIRE include Care Corner Counselling Centre in Toa Payoh Lorong 4, Counselling and Care Centre in Hong Lim Complex, PPIS Family Service Centre (West) in Bukit Batok, Sage Counselling Centre in Jurong Point Shopping Centre and the Thye Hua Kwan Moral Charities in Petir Road.

Besides funding more SSAs, the NCSS has worked with We Care to train the SSAs in addiction counselling, so that at least four counsellors at each agency in ASPIRE can provide early intervention.

Early intervention includes assessing if the person has a behavioural addiction and directing them to the right support. It also involves counselling to help the addict recognise the triggers and practical ways to cope, among other measures.

In a press release issued on Aug 20, NCSS chief executive Lim Shung Yar said: “Behavioural addictions often go unseen until they affect relationships, education, work or well-being.

“NCSS is committed to strengthening the sector’s response by bringing expertise closer to communities and better equipping SSAs to help people seek support earlier.”

We Care, which has two decades of experience in managing addictions, will handle the more complex cases.

NCSS will also set up a Community of Practice for the SSAs to gather and share cases and experiences, learn from one another, and improve how they support help-seekers.

Those addicted to gaming and pornography can be as young as 10, although many of them are in their teens and 20s, and most of them are male, according to the social workers interviewed by The Straits Times.

The social workers also said the addiction numbers have risen given the easy accessibility to pornography, gaming and gambling online; the anonymity these online platforms offer them; and the growing openness to seeking help.

We Care executive director Tham Yuen Han said the organisation is seeing more people seek help for problematic pornography use and gambling addiction in recent years.

For example, We Care saw close to 200 cases of porn addiction in 2025 – an 80 per cent increase from 2020.

Tham said: “Problematic use of pornography is when it increases in frequency and the type of content accessed, such as more raunchy content, until it affects their (the addicts’) life, work, studies and relationships.

“(For example), they need to seek out porn even at work, and they go to the toilet multiple times during the work day to watch porn. And this also affects their relationship with their partners or spouses, who feel betrayed by the compulsive use of pornography.”

Some of these men have even got into trouble with the law for voyeurism and upskirt video offences, while others have had multiple casual partners to satisfy their sexual needs, she added.

Tham said that most of those addicted to pornography are men aged between 18 and 35, and less than 10 per cent are women.

Those hooked on online gambling, such as playing football and casino games, also tend to be men, aged between 18 and 45, she added.

In 2025, We Care saw almost 90 people for gambling addiction, more than double the number in 2020.

It provides individual therapy to address the underlying issues that led to the addiction, which could include anxiety, childhood trauma and loneliness, and teaches these people ways to manage their addiction.

The therapy could also involve counselling their significant other or other family members, and group therapy sessions, where the addicts learn from and support one another.

Touch Community Services, one of the 10 SSAs in ASPIRE, says it is also seeing more people seek help for gaming, social media use and pornography addiction.

Andrea Chan, group head of Touch Counselling and Psychological Services, said Touch is also seeing a growing number of what it calls unconventional gambling cases, such as the compulsive spending on blind boxes and collectible trading cards, such as Pokemon cards. A blind box is a sealed package containing a surprise collectible item.

Chan explained how bad the addiction can get: “Some individuals may stop attending work or school, withdraw from social interactions, and become increasingly isolated from family and friends.

“The impact often extends beyond the individual, with families facing considerable emotional strain and exhaustion as they seek to support their loved one.”

While Touch did not provide the number of cases, she said that males comprise the majority of those seeking help for gaming and pornography addiction. Separately, a higher proportion of females seek help for social media addiction.

Those seeking help for gaming and social media addiction are aged from 10 to 25, and they come from all socio-economic backgrounds, Chan added.

She said that getting help earlier is critical as addiction rewires the brain, and early intervention can disrupt these changes before they become hardwired.

Touch has seen the case of a 12-year-old boy who spent $10,000 in a month buying items in the games he played, and this severely strained his parents’ finances.

The situation got so bad that he ran away from home at one point.

Through counselling and other forms of support for the boy and his family, he gradually learnt healthier habits and better control over his gaming behaviour, Chan said.

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