South Korea gaming curfew passes committee unanimously

by Alexander Sliwinski on Apr 23rd 2011 5:00AM

South Korea's national assembly will soon vote on a curfew law preventing children under 15 from playing online games from midnight until 6AM. Chosunilbo reports the National Assembly's legislation and judiciary committee voted unanimously to pass the bill this Wednesday. The law would not affect offline and console games.

The government began making moves to enact a video game curfew last year. The program also included tests of a "slowdown" policy that would reduce the internet speed of underage users logged into a policed game for an extended time.

Government regulation isn't fun, but it could be worse for young South Korean gamers ... they could be Vietnamese adults.

Via: Gamasutra
Source: Chosunilbo

Tags: curfew, gaming-curfew, pc, pc-baang, south-korea

Reader Comments (41)

Perfect time to play Starcraft now, between midnight and 6 AM. What time is that CST?

I bet Google knows.

@Anticrawl

I was just thinking that. Finally, I can actually win a few games now.

Oh and REBOOT!!! Amazing show mate. Well done.

@DasMadHatter
Unless you bought the game from Korea you won't be playing these players anyway. Which is cool, since the metagame is different for every region around the world.

@DasMadHatter Do you have a Korean account? No? Well then you aren't playing against any Koreans.

@Anticrawl

Well to be fair, unless you actually played on the Korean servers that was a non-issue.

@Anticrawl To be fair, unless you had a Korean account that wasn't really the issue. Also considering how big gaming is over in Korea, i'm not too sure how this will work out for them.

Maybe they have a real problem. I know if everyone played video games like I did in high school I'd be worried about the future.

@Bielzer

Oh yeh hey wasn't that asian country called america?

jus' sayin' it happens everywhere.

@Bielzer Have a look at the publicised incidents here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_controversy It's far from being an Asian problem - the worst ones on that list happened in the States.

@RobLink I wrote a report on video game controversy for university. If you look into the majority of them in more detail you'll discover they're mostly complete bullshit. Clearly some of them have serious underlying psychological issues.

@RobLink
"21-year-old American Shawn Woolley committed suicide after what his mother claimed was an addiction to EverQuest. "
Of all the reasons to kill your self that pushed him over?

@The Aquacharger
I think in such a case the "correlation does not equal causation" phrase applies

@Furyia Oh god, I know. Most of the people on that list were batshit insane. How the he'll do you kill a baby because of Farmville? There's an unhinged mind there, it could have been anything that pushed them over the edge. Just in the cases where it's a video game it gets publicised a bit more by those with an agenda.

@Crayola Q Pants ESQ
I wrote a paper over that subject in high school. If I remember correctly, his suicide note stated something about EQ. Not 100% sure, though I did read that on Wiki about 4 years ago.

Aaah I just love how every generation attacks a new form of media. Same thing happened all those centuries ago when they burned books.

Maybe now those Koreans will study all night and take over all the universities like their other Asian counterparts.

My first reaction was disgust at being so controlling.

But my second reaction was that it might be good for some people. :P

The generation of people that didn't grow up with videogames cannot die off sooner

@Lerkero

Because history always shows that the older generation dying off immediately solves problems... I'm sure no one will try to regulate video games when the older generation goes... just like how racism will cease to exist when all the old racists die off...

The newer generation is always so much better, smarter, and willing to treat their fellow citizens fairly and not infringe upon their lives... I mean, we're not living in a world run by a vacuum of recycled bull****... oh wait...

@The Joy of Painting w Bob Ross
Racism and regulation of a medium for entertainment are two entirely different things.

If you haven't noticed, in the the past both music and movies were both heavily regarded as bad until newer generations that were exposed to it at younger ages grew up and did not feel alienated by it.

In the 1950's Elvis was controversial because he gyrated is hips, and now half naked men and women regularly parade around in music videos. I'm sure that's the same as racism, bigotry, and prejudice, and all other social problems because they are all on the same level right?

I applaud your use of hyperbole to get a point across though. You are very good at it.

I know two things that will solve this parenting and Self control

"Government regulation isn't fun, but..."

is that what you're calling it?
i believe the word you're looking for, chief, is 'fascism', lol.

@carg0

It aint fascist unless they put a gun to your head.

@carg0 People throw fascism around without actaully knowing what it means. Unless this curfew also eliminates South Korea's multi-party system and indoctrinates these kids that the Nation is always right and everything you do must benefit the Nation, it isn't fascism.

@libregkd

What? But I...I brought a Guy Fawkes mask...and...fight the power?

@libregkd

boy, how do you think fascist regimes get started? i appreciate that you've discovered the Wikipedia entry on fascism but you obviously know nothing about world history and i have neither the time nor the inclination to explain any of it to a child.

@carg0

1. Throw around buzzwords you don't know the meaning of.
2. Refuse to accept you're wrong.
3. ?????
4. Profit

@matthewlowery

"buzz words"? (laughing)

stay in school, son, and perhaps someday you'll figure out what "profit" actually means.

Wow, I'm sure SK is a great place an' all, but this just sucks. Of course you could just lie about your age, right?

@Yothe I doubt it's going to be that simple like going to callofduty.com "Type in your age"...

that makes it even more desirable!

And how will they enforce that? Seems like they could just say they're older than they really are like, just everybody else on the internet.

@The Cole Train

In South Korea everyone logs onto the internet using their social security numbers (their sex and DOB is part of their SS#) granted the idea of SS is different from the US I'm sure children affected by the bill will have a hard time convincing their parents or older friends to let them use their SS#s late into the night to play video games. Korea supposedly has the fastest internet in the world and interestingly enough their youth also has a legitimate gaming problem.

Speaking as a teenager, I think it's a great idea if it were only for weekdays. I don't see a problem with late night gaming on the weekends though.

The Government overstepping their bounds by putting themselves into the homes of citizens. Taking simple rights away. This a job for parents. Im sure American Government is looking at this and will try to do it as well. Chipping away at our rights little by little and today's generation continues to let it happen.

Will there be movie curfews? Book curfews? Sudoku curfews? Porn curfews?

Getting a bit tired of gaming being targeted against when everybody else's hobbies are perfectly a-okay. That or I'm tired because of all the porn.

@Mama Luigi
A porn curfew would leave the internet dead for that time period.

And that's how the second Korean War began.

@kgoo867 Tits are an evil spawn from hell. Protect the children!

They have no right to limit anyone's freedoms. this shit better not make its way to North America

South Korea gaming curfew passes committee unanimously

Reader Comments (41)

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 5:19AM Anticrawl said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 5:59AM Special Agent Steve said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 11:19AM DasMadHatter said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 11:56AM Snooki said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 12:55PM Ellimem said

Posted: Apr 24th 2011 12:57PM XGM said

Posted: Apr 24th 2011 12:39AM XGM said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 6:01AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 7:00AM AntiVillian said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 7:09AM RobLink said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 10:23AM Furyia said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 4:00PM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 7:38PM Crayola Q Pants ESQ said

Posted: Apr 24th 2011 3:26PM RobLink said

Posted: Apr 25th 2011 12:59AM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 8:03PM Tezz said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 8:16AM Yuglyoshi said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 9:17AM Gooblechev said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 9:27AM Lerkero said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 10:36AM The Joy of Painting w Bob Ross said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 11:22AM Lerkero said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 9:34AM Sc4rfac3 said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 9:38AM carg0 said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 11:20AM DasMadHatter said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 1:48PM libregkd said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 5:26PM Batzarro The worlds WOrst Detect said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 10:28PM carg0 said

Posted: Apr 24th 2011 10:18AM matthewlowery said

Posted: Apr 24th 2011 11:48AM carg0 said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 10:07AM Yothe said

Posted: Apr 24th 2011 10:46AM matthewlowery said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 10:22AM dioxholster said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 11:13AM The Cole Train said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 1:19PM pierky said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 5:31PM MEMgrizzlies7 said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 11:24PM HaVoK308 said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 6:58PM Mama Luigi said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 8:29PM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Apr 24th 2011 12:30AM Batzarro The worlds WOrst Detect said

Posted: Apr 23rd 2011 7:02PM WeRequireMOARMinerals said

Posted: Apr 24th 2011 11:17AM Hatchet said

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