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South Korea to impose midnight ban, slowdowns on underage online gamers

Posted Apr 12, 2010 at 12:58PM EST by Karl B.

Listed in: MMORPG Tags: South Korea

l2-mmo

South Korea takes video game addiction very seriously. You may have already heard about the South Korean man who died after a 50-hour gaming marathon. Or the South Korean baby who suffocated to death while her parents played at an internet cafe.

In response, the country's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has come up with a a pair of new policies that they hope will curb online gaming addiction among their youth.

One of the measures involved is the "nighttime shutdown" where underage gamers will be automatically blocked from online access to games for six hours once the clock strikes midnight. They say midnight but gamers are actually given a choice between three blackout periods: midnight to 6 AM, 1 to 7 AM, and 2 to 8 AM.

The nighttime shutdown will commence in the second half of the year. It will cover popular online games like Maple Story and Mabinogi.

Another method currently being tested slows internet connection speeds down to a crawl if an underage gamer plays for a long enough period of time.

Four RPGs are currently being used to test this "slowdown" method. This number will eventually be increased to a total of 19 RPGs which reportedly represents almost 80% of South Korea's domestic online game market. Interestingly enough, some of the country's most popular MMORPGs like Lineage are apparently not included.

Via [Korea Herald]

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This makes perfect sense! A 28 year old dies from video game addiction, so they put bans on KIDS video gaming. Wow. But then again, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, here in America the whole 21+ for drinking is based on 40+ year olds being caught drunk driving. The idiot politicians just love blaming people that generally cant (or just don't) defend themselves. These ageists are far far worse for the world then any video game. They need to put put in PRISON for LIFE.

# lol... — papajag 2010-04-12 15:46

Exactly what I was thinking.

# RE: RE: South Korea to impose midnight ban, slowdowns on underage online gamers — Karl B. 2010-04-12 17:01

Maybe they think the older gamers are a lost cause so they might as well focus on the ones they can control. *shrug*

# meh. — Relys 2010-04-12 16:40

I think you're confusing the reasons of the Korean governemnt with the speculations from the QJ editors.

MMORPG's are incredibly additive and socially destructive.

I know it's fun to jump on the bandwagon. RAW RAW VIDA GAMEZ!!! But children shouldn't be staying up at 2 in the morning grinding out quests in maple story.

+1 # RE: meh. — Justin Graziano 2010-04-12 21:52

Since when is it fine and dandy for the government to step in and tell you what you can and cant do? Maybe its normal in Korea (I know it is in North Korea) but if this were happening here in the USA, people would be going crazy (and for good damn reason).

And as for children staying up, that depends on the child. I think THEY should decide weather or not they want to be up at that hour playing the game, just like adults can. Could it be a bad decision? Maybe, maybe not. They'll learn there lesson when their tired the next day, as adults do. They don't need extra protection, it may be hard to believe, but children are human beings and deserve rights like every other human being has.

+1 # RE: RE: meh. — june 2010-04-12 22:55

how about drugs, or even alcohol for minors? isnt that the government? Alcohol or Games, both can be addictive and this is the Korean governments way to counteract an addiction that is plaguing the citizens.

-1 # .. — Relys 2010-04-12 23:19

Quoting Justin Graziano:

Since when is it fine and dandy for the government to step in and tell you what you can and cant do? Maybe its normal in Korea (I know it is in North Korea) but if this were happening here in the USA, people would be going crazy (and for good damn reason).

And as for children staying up, that depends on the child. I think THEY should decide weather or not they want to be up at that hour playing the game, just like adults can. Could it be a bad decision? Maybe, maybe not. They'll learn there lesson when their tired the next day, as adults do. They don't need extra protection, it may be hard to believe, but children are human beings and deserve rights like every other human being has.

Children are developing human beings who don't have the self control or knowledge the make correct decisions when there are zero restrictions.

Any decent, self respecting parent would not let their child stay up that late gaming on a school night. Unfortunately, not all parents have their child's best interests in mind. South Korea obviously doesn't want a entire generation of drop-out losers who play video games all day long, and I can't say I don't blame them.

# well — Ricochet__ 2010-04-13 09:31

Quoting Justin Graziano:

Since when is it fine and dandy for the government to step in and tell you what you can and cant do? Maybe its normal in Korea (I know it is in North Korea) but if this were happening here in the USA, people would be going crazy (and for good damn reason).

And as for children staying up, that depends on the child. I think THEY should decide weather or not they want to be up at that hour playing the game, just like adults can. Could it be a bad decision? Maybe, maybe not. They'll learn there lesson when their tired the next day, as adults do. They don't need extra protection, it may be hard to believe, but children are human beings and deserve rights like every other human being has.

since they step'd in and started to tell you what you can or cant eat at mcdonalds and other fast food restraunts
i for one like some greese on my food, but goverments decided for me and said NO

# hm — Ricochet__ 2010-04-13 09:25

Quoting Relys:

I think you're confusing the reasons of the Korean governemnt with the speculations from the QJ editors.

MMORPG's are incredibly additive and socially destructive.

I know it's fun to jump on the bandwagon. RAW RAW VIDA GAMEZ!!! But children shouldn't be staying up at 2 in the morning grinding out quests in maple story.

how are they gonna know the diffrence betweer a child and a adult?
i mean here in america, the parents are the kids hook-ups for gaMing,and only have a problem with it if their kids kills someone and they dont get a finger pointed at them for BAD PARENTING
YOU CANT CURE STUPIDITY

+1 # RE: South Korea to impose midnight ban, slowdowns on underage online gamers — june 2010-04-12 17:09

For those who are wondering, in Korea you must use your Korean Social Security Number (KSSN) to register for almost anything including games. The KSSN is linked to your birthday and so thats how they will filter out underaged gamers.

I think the reason is not those individual cases where ppl die from over gaming but because of game addiction in general. More gaming = less schoolwork, especially in a country where education is top priority. Or maybe, no sleep at night leading to sleeping in class. I dunno, but the reasoning behind this banning is fair, in my opinion as both a Korean and a gamer.

On the other hand, some kids come home from school and after school tutoring at midnight so it seems a bit unfair to those that work hard and cant get their reward at the end of a hard day. I guess thats where these testing phases come in.

# well — Ricochet__ 2010-04-13 09:27

why wouldnt the parents just use their ssn for the kids? i mean, a playstation or xbox is cheaper then a babysitter,
actually , they ARE babysitters!

# RE: well — june 2010-04-13 12:47

well, its up to the parents to control that. Gaming doesn't feed you, so i disagree that they are babysitters. On a different note most of the games the are refering to is probably PC games rather than console gaming. Playsation and Xbox arent really that popular in Korea by my experience, i could be wrong. But hmm... usually kids dont need babysitters in the middle of the night.

-1 # Hmm. — Anhmeister 2010-04-12 17:51

I see how people can get angry over this, but it doesn't seem as bad as some may make it seem. Granted I don't know how a normal day in South Korea is, but a blackout from 2AM to 8AM would not bother me in the least. It would actually make me get some sleep for a change.

-1 # .. — Guest 2010-04-12 17:55

i personally found school way to boring to pay attention, but then again i'm stuck in an american school.

# ?!?! — Ricochet__ 2010-04-13 09:29

Quoting justaperson:

i personally found school way to boring to pay attention, but then again i'm stuck in an american school.

you blame american schools for you being stupid?
love it or leave it
noone made u be a failure and got you to NOT pay attention
you chose your own path, the school didnt choose it for you

# .. — Guest 2010-04-12 18:55

thtas a good thing instead of playing games 24/7 they should be getting poontang 24/7 ;) fking nerds lol

# Parents — Guest 2010-04-14 02:37

They should have parenting classes instead.
Seriously.

# uh.. — kaz050 2010-04-21 13:18

WTF how can u do that if u dont know whos the kid and the adult playing the same game i wonder if they are going too have spys looking in peoples windows next.

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South Korea to impose midnight ban, slowdowns on underage online gamers

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