News

South Korean 'gaming curfew' for under 16s now in effect
Posted: 25.11.2011 12:55 by Jamie Davey Comments: 14
If you're a gamer in South Korea under the age of 16 then you can forget playing online between midnight and 6am from now on as the dubbed 'Cinderella Law' comes into effect.

This means PlayStation Network and Xbox Live, as well as other online platforms, will block 'underage users' from multiplayer services. It's to fight 'growing games addiction'.

South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family spearheaded the law as a way to combat what they see as videogames addiction.

The 6 hour block is off limits to anymore 15 years-old or younger. Critics have argued it violates the rights of children and that the government has failed to prove that playing video games is more harmful than TV, movies, listening to music or other home bound activities. Korean game studios call it a measure of "excessive prohibition".

Of course where there's a new rule there's almost always a new loophole to be exploited. Some younger gamers are simply using their parents’ accounts to bypass the 'gaming curfew'. Life finds a way.
Source: Gamasutra

Comments

By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Nov 25, 2011
herodotus
I applaud the ruling, personaly.

"Critics have argued it violates the rights of children and that the government has failed to prove that playing video games is more harmful than TV, movies, listening to music or other home bound activities".

What tosh....they just don't compare. Watching and listening to media is vastly different than playing products requiring interractive behaviour that stimulates the brain, thus robbing it of much needed "down time" at that age.
By Sir_Recon (SI Veteran Newbie) on Nov 25, 2011
Sir_Recon
I'm 40 and I need that law for me.
By JonahFalcon (SI Elite) on Nov 25, 2011
JonahFalcon
Hooray for the Nanny State! Remember: PARENTS HAVE NO POWER OVER THEIR CHILDREN.
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Nov 25, 2011
herodotus
That's actually more true than you think, Jonah. The number of parents who don't care or believe they shouldn't need to be responsible hand the whole thing over to the state/gov't/whatever. They seem to think that simply bringing the child into the world is "Job Done!".
I game in the wee hours, but at my age there's noone to stop me...not even me. If my son was still in that age bracket there's no way in the world I'd allow it....but I know plenty of parents who don't know and don't really care what their kids are up to.
By djole381 (SI Elite) on Nov 26, 2011
djole381
Parents HAVE power over their children. It's just that many of them are too lazy to use that power. It's much easier to rely on TV and video games to educate children than to educate them ourselves.
By JonahFalcon (SI Elite) on Nov 26, 2011
JonahFalcon
And when kids commit suicide, it's because of heavy metal.
By noobst3R (SI Core) on Nov 26, 2011
noobst3R
It might be a bit harsh, and kinda an invasion into what you do at home, but actually this might not be that bad...
By raw_wog33 (SI Member) on Nov 27, 2011
raw_wog33
i dont know how stopping children from 15 and under from the internet can resolve the problem.
By raw_wog33 (SI Member) on Nov 27, 2011
raw_wog33
and its only a 6 hour routine every day.
By SiyaenSokol (SI Elite) on Nov 27, 2011
SiyaenSokol
Well, this is one way of getting their children to go to bed earlier XD.

Other than that, I don't see how this is going to affect game addiction.
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Nov 28, 2011
herodotus
It's called 'Limits', or Boundaries if you like. Parents set them so children grow into adults knowing what exactly bounaries mean, and set them for themselves.
By SiyaenSokol (SI Elite) on Nov 28, 2011
SiyaenSokol
I think that it would've had more affect, if they had put the timer on 22:00pm rather than 00:00am. It will give the children two more hours of not touching a game, and probably getting some good sleep as well.
By Kres (SI Elite) on Nov 28, 2011
Kres
+1 Sir_Recon. I was thinking how you all are going to post how this is a bad thing, while I see its good sides, but I see I'm not the only one. Can they actually enforce this? You just need an adult friend, or adult parent to register on their name, and you can play... I also hope that they don't overdo this. I'm from Croatia, and I'm confident that our goverment (those that aren't in jail) wont have time for this in the next decade or so...
By SiyaenSokol (SI Elite) on Nov 29, 2011
SiyaenSokol
I agree with you Kres... in the sense of my country as well. I live in South Africa and the government is still having trouble to fix the roads, nevermind having time to enforce such a law.

Here we have South Afican time... we have the watches, but they have the time.