Three hours and out: South Korea considers additional gaming ban for minors

[unreal.livejournal.com]

It looks like being a young gamer in South Korea is getting tougher and tougher. Last year the country put into effect a "Cinderella Law" that prohibited online gamers 18 and younger from logging in to popular games between the hours of midnight and 6:00 a.m.. Now the government is taking a close look at an additional law limiting the amount of time played each day for minors.

The proposed policy comes from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) and would yank account privileges for minors if they played either more than two hours in a row or more than three hours daily. The MEST is concerned about game addiction in minors, citing that it may come from the duration of play sessions.

The game industry is concerned about possible over-regulation by the government spurred by theories on addiction that haven't been proven. Some are calling for earlier shutdown policies to be overturned if this one is implemented.

Source: joystiq

Comments

[hugtimes.livejournal.com]

no moving to south korea while i'm underage then i guess.

[geonitacka.livejournal.com]

Whoa.

It's definitely something that needs to be addressed but yeah you don't want to over do it either. This is be super controversial for awhile because finding a happy medium in this situation will be difficult. =O

[miki-831.livejournal.com]

Those regulations seem too strict. Maybe limit it to 6 hours of gameplay in 24 hours? If I was a citizen of S. Korea though, I would tell the government to gtfo of my recreational business. Leave that to the parents.

[k0dama.livejournal.com]

but that's still 6 hours spent gaming, 6 hours spent sleeping, 8-10 hours at school, and the rest of the time spent in transport.

These kids seriously need to give the gaming a break!

[miki-831.livejournal.com]

It's not the government's job to tell them what they can and can't do in their free time.

[djlancerock.livejournal.com]

i agree

[heysupbro.livejournal.com]

exactly.

[jasmineakaiumi.livejournal.com]

mte. If it keeps them off the streets doing other potentially dangerous things then I'm all for it as it's not particularly harmful imo

[bumie.livejournal.com]

something should be done tbh , I hope it works

[feel-my-mind.livejournal.com]

I wasn't even allowed to have video games growing up (expect for a game boy which was only for trips over an hour), so honestly, I don't see a problem with it.

[stormsandsins.livejournal.com]

I've only played video games like... three times in my entire life. And then in high school I played tetris and pacman on my graphic calculator woooooo! but I don't think that counts haha.

[feel-my-mind.livejournal.com]

I didn't even have games on my calculator. My school was super strict and would check our calculators like once a week!

[stormsandsins.livejournal.com]

Oh, you know how you could save text? My teachers only checked for cheaters :) And, well, people who played games in class too often.

[djlancerock.livejournal.com]

the difference is that I'm assuming your parent(s) made that decision, and it was theirs to make. I don't think it's the worst idea ever or anything but I'm not sure it's the govt's job. not my country though so what do I know.

[feel-my-mind.livejournal.com]

The thing is, we live in a era were parents expect everyone else to do the parenting. I mean, why do you think food companies get sued for targeting their sweet food advertising towards kids or school gets criticized for serving apple juice and soda or they get mad at the commercials on the tv becuase they are using it as a babysitter. So why I agree it is the parents job, its quite hard to say that they will.

[djlancerock.livejournal.com]

so there should be rules limiting what everyone can do to make up for parents' shitty decisions and blaming responsiblity on outside sources? I understand what you are saying, but I think it's dangerous to allow goverments to take control of such aspects of people's lives like how many hours they spend gaming. we could let them take control of so many other things under the same logic.

[feel-my-mind.livejournal.com]

No, I totally agree with you. I don't think the law is necessary or should be needed; I'm just saying the government might be trying to cover their ass. (And also saying that I, personally, wouldn't have a problem with such a law. Not that the law itself isn't a problem.)

[djlancerock.livejournal.com]

gotcha. I'm glad it was a misunderstanding, I honestly find it scary when people are ok with such govt control, which is why I got a bit preachy.

[djlancerock.livejournal.com]

and in fact, I think the situation you are explaining is a result of people not taking responsibility for their own decisions, which is what happens when we let the government make them for us.

[relmneiko.livejournal.com]

I wasn't allowed to play games growing up either, so I just played at friends' houses/bought them with my own money from my paper route and played in secret. Authority makes ridic rules, it just encourages rebellion and resentment of authority.

[lil-rach-angel.livejournal.com]

Gotta love how these limitations at certain ages suggestion the government thinks you're not in danger of any kind of addiction after the age of 18. These limits are getting way too extreme. Leave it to the parents to take responsability for how long their child is allowed to play a video game.

[lil-rach-angel.livejournal.com]

I'd have to disagree that it's worse if a person is younger versus older. I don't think slacking off at school is worse than someone losing their job due to an addiction. Chances are much higher that school will be more forgiving (excluding higher academia here, but that's more of a job anyways) compared to the general work industry when trying to pick yourself back up. Public school can't deny you in if they know you've a deliberating addiction (recovering or not) compared to the general industry that can and will if they know a person interviewing has an addiction, especially one that cost them their last job. It'll haunt them career-wise for ages. Plenty of students already don't care and addiction isn't the root cause of that. Caring isn't a requirement to pass a class. Addiction is terrible across the board so saying one has it worse off than the other because they're younger or older is a bit of a diservice.

[relmneiko.livejournal.com]

ikr. I was over 18 when I went through my addictive gaming phase. A dude I know who had the same problem was in his early twenties. Often I find it's college students who end up like that because of the stress of uni life/being away from home and friends etc.

[djlancerock.livejournal.com]

I know people who played videogames all day as teens and they are now game designers, animators, software developers, engineers, etc.

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

i will never understand south korea's obsession with online games

like i do have some friends that love playing games on playstation all night long, but they dont do it every night. and they still have a social life and are good in school and eat and stuff.

[benihime99.livejournal.com]

I guess you never tried games like WoW, time flies for real.
It's really addictive

[eishastan.livejournal.com]

THIS! sometimes you don't realize how much you've played! my sister and i once got so into the sims that we didn't realized it was almost 6am until the birds started singing.

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

i used to play computer games all the time when i was younger, and yes time flies by really fast, but i still knew when it was time to turn off the computer.
playing for 10+ hours straight without eating, drinking or doing other things is just crazy

[benihime99.livejournal.com]

That's too much tbh.
I can understand why parents might be concerned and everything but this is too much.

[k0dama.livejournal.com]

I think 3 hours a day is appropriate.
The rest should be spent doing something social or relaxing.

[cultic.livejournal.com]

video gaming is plenty relaxing imo. it can be plenty social, too.

[k0dama.livejournal.com]

Oh my, not in Korea.

[cuethemusicc.livejournal.com]

I agree that too many video games could be unhealthy, but this is like telling kids they legally have to eat their vegetables... those types of decisions should be left to the parents, imo....

[eishastan.livejournal.com]

Can't they just lie about their age in their accounts and keep playing as much as they do? I would do that if i were them tbh.

[lil-rach-angel.livejournal.com]

Iirc they can't because their login has to be connected to their national ID number. Though I'm sure that doesn't stop some of them from using their parents (with or without permission is another story).

[eishastan.livejournal.com]

I see i didn't knew about their policies, thanks for the info!

[cultic.livejournal.com]

this is really stupid, the government shouldn't be dictating how people can spend their time, even if they are minors. if it's a problem, the parents need to do their jobs and teach them that they need to be responsible with managing their free time or the privilege of a computer isn't going to be available to them. such regulations aren't fair to kids who legitimately can spend lots of time on their hobbies without falling behind in school, etc.

[swhyeon1991.livejournal.com]

3 hours daily?? but some people bulk playing on weekends and play nothing on weekdays tho

[djlancerock.livejournal.com]

Some of the comments here, lol. Not everyone who plays videogames (or even binge-plays) is a loser with no life and shitty grades in school.

I'm not even a gamer, but I know plenty of smart, hard–working gamers.

[heysupbro.livejournal.com]

This sounds like a waste of time and resources. It shouldn't be the government's job to dictate how kids spend their free time. If there is a reason for a parent to be concerned about the amount of time a child spends gaming, it should be their responsibility to take care of it.

[taecish.livejournal.com]

u can't even get anything done with just 6 hours!

[jonghyunf.livejournal.com]

lol they're trying to be china sad.

[killclosedrown.livejournal.com]

Omg but how will Leenock be able to practice?!?!

[chibi-rei.livejournal.com]

Good!

Man my students (mainly the boys) are pissed about that midnight curfew. They even know the name of the lady who introduced this rule. They really don't like her >.>

But from students' view I kinda get it. For the kids who have classes until 11 pm they don't get to play --- honestly though they need sleep more than anything.

[djlancerock.livejournal.com]

I think what they really need is a stronger school curfew

[relmneiko.livejournal.com]

When do Korean kids have TIME to play videogames more than 2 hours a day? Aren't they at school like 12 hours a day?