South Korea's "Shutdown Law" Takes Effect

[Darchrow]

These laws have been placed in Thailand since Ragnarok Online.
You'll only be able to play after after hours if you've registered as an 18+ account which requires scanned copy of your national ID and some sheet for account details. (as far as the system in Thailand was concerned)

The system worked as you couldn't even log-in after midnight and will get kicked out from whatever game you're playing by 12:15, the Cyber Cafes support them as well by having staff check IDs to see whoever is at the shop after hours (playing 12pm to 5am is also considered the cheapest rate at a Cyber Cafe). There are even some police raids during school hours and after hours that catch under 18s playing at this time.

The law seems pretty lax now though, not sure whats happened to it since I haven't been back home for 3years. Its all part of a government project to get NEETs off their asses really.

 

[BrownGaijin]

I don't see how this is any more offensive to children's civil liberties than curfews here in the U.S. Then again there may be a few of you who believe that it is a child's right to go out into the streets at three in the morning...

 

[The Lugz]

and who will this stop? nobody with half a braincell
you could get around that in a heartbeat if you wanted to

now, if you had an adult internet service and a child internet service that you just shut off at night
that'd pretty-much bone your night-time multi-player gaming

but even then who doesn't have phones? psp's and all kinds of mobile gaming these days?
someone wants to game they'll game, even if they resort to playing cards

 

[Combustion Kevin]

cut these guys some slack, I bet the ministers just /facedesked in hopelesness and despair when trying to figure this out.

how, as a government, would you try to do this?

 

[snave]

I have a harsh opinion on this, and it rhymes with barge-free celebrant*.

Seriously though, this new law is barely newsworthy. For all intents and purposes the ban already stands. This is just mopping up after the handful of remaining families with two parents too inept to take care of their own children. Laws already exist forcing internet gaming cafes ("PCbangs") to refuse service to minors after midnight, and parents are encouraged to monitor their children, whom they have a serious vested interest in considering a significant amount of the average family's paycheck goes straight into their offspring's education.

As such, the only way for a minor to play such a game would be at home, after midnight with their parents' approval. Furthermore, with cram schools banned from operation after 10 pm, there is already a sizable 2 hour gap for relaxation time after a particularly long day of study, so there's not really a need for parents of young children to ignore advice offered and be extra relaxed over logoff times.

The effects of these reforms have already been felt in the country. The Shutdown Law is just the final and probably smallest piece in a broader set of pretty effective solutions.

Clarification

Some of you posting above seem unaware of how the internet could distinguish someone by age. What you're missing is the fact that South Korea's intraternet requires you to log in to all internet services using a government ID card which has your very date of birth (as well as borad place of residence, gender and race) encoded in the ID number itself. This of course includes online games, which are mostly handled domstically. Furthermore, the language barrier tends to be pretty efficient in weeding out competing services abroad, so it's not easy to circumvent.



*A wedding MC who refuses to operate on river cruises.

 

[JdaS]

Not sure if unhappy about government babysitting or happy that the government of a country where gaming addiction is getting out of hand cares enough to take action. At the expense of big business I might add.

 

[poleboy]

Restricing people's free time to turn them into more effective worker drones? Classy. I thought you were supposed to be the good Korea.

And just because it can't be said enough: Governments are not parents. The purpose of government is to serve its people, not the other way around. And if it's already come to that, it's time for a revolution. Preferably a violent one.

 

[Monsterfurby]

This law is perfect on so many levels.

1. It is very easy to enforce and will be highly effective.
2. Finally, parents are free from the hassle that is actual parenting. Now they just have to point to the law!
3. The government should definitely do parents' jobs. I mean, I trust my government completely and utterly with information about my gaming habits and pretty much everything else, don't you? Why shouldn't completely unrelated government agencies store my social security number and other personal data?
4. Console developers will have no cost and trouble whatsoever in implementing age checks. It's not at all difficult.

All in all, a brilliant move which should definitely be repeated in the west.



[/sarcasm]

 

[GLo Jones]

Knowing the current state of many South Korean students, this is nothing but a good thing in my opinion. The kids are pushed ridiculously hard to succeed academically, whether they actually bother in the classroom or not. While this may not actually leave the gaming kids much time to play, it should hopefully help many to get more sleep.

 

[bjj hero]

This sounds sensible to me. Kids should not be up playing videogames at 3 am anyway.

 

[TheDooD]

If S Korea stopped making a lot of pretty damn fun looking FTP MMO's they wouldn't really have this problem now would they.

 

[Pinstar]

I'm not sure how I feel about this law. There are clearly problems with this sort of things in Korea, more than just one or two nutjobs taking it too far.

Unlike SOPA in the US, this law is specific in both its purpose and scope.

On the other hand, this is the government doing what a parent should be doing in the first place.


Unfortunately, I think the most hardcore of young gamers, the ones who are the intended target of this law, will work just that much harder to circumvent it. Either by making themselves look older, jumping on the back of an older siblings/parent's account or just by going to LAN parties... and hacking games (like SC2) so they can do lan.

 

[kingmob]

It is age limits on games/movies/etc taken to the extreme. Anyone who condones those (as anything other than a way to inform parents) but opposes this is a hypocrite.

The most horrible thing of course is, that when a parent is ok with their child playing after 12 (for whatever reason, it is THEIR kid), are now apparently criminals in SK. Big Brother knows best...

 

[Siege_TF]

The law's passage has been met with furious opposition from South Korean gaming groups and civil rights advocates.

I'm shocked. I didn't actually know South Korean civil rights advocates officially existed.
Seems they don't have much clout though.

 

[Sylveria]

To deal with this problem, the MGEF wants games companies to collect additional information from gamers, including social security numbers and phone numbers, to strengthen account identification systems. As TIG notes, this is "exactly the opposite of personal information protection law."


Oh yeah this is smart. These online game places get hacked all the time, especially in Asia, and they want them storing social security numbers?

 

[Sylveria]

This sounds sensible to me. Kids should not be up playing videogames at 3 am anyway.

That's a parenting decision, not one the government should be making laws to enforce. Saying stuff like this is sensible is the first step to allowing it to happen elsewhere.

Also, lets think of where this could lead. First it's just online providers, then it becomes a required feature in consoles so no games can be played after a certain time for kids, then someone decides that making this apply to adults because it would reduce work-related problems...

 

[Sylveria]

How pathetic and sad are you if you're so desperate to play your damn games between midnight and morning that you go through all that damn trouble? When you're beneath 16 years of age, a fucking child. If you're that desperate to play after midnight, that's an argument IN FAVOR of this law, not against.

You are absolutely right, we need more laws like this. How about making it so the machine can not be turned on after midnight without a parental code so no games can be played?

Oh, but why stop at games, how about laws that say no one can drink alcohol after midnight, that would cut down drunk driving fatalities. But how can we enforce that, even something involuntary could be cheated.. oh I know, we can embed blood testing devices into every person so it can periodically send your blood/alc level to the ATF.

But why stop there! That device can scan your blood for anything it wants: alcohol, drugs, even high-fat foods, after all obesity is a big problem, if we stop people from eating food after midnight, it might cut down on childhood obesity.

Since we've already got a device in everyone, why not let it track our locations, that would drastically cut down on kidnappings and other crimes since we'd know where everyone is at all times.

I think you're on to something friend! I'm glad you want the government to monitor and control our every move, and this is the first step to getting there. For the overlord!

 

[LadyTiamat]

The kids will find a way around it.....trust me.