South Korea's "Shutdown Law" Takes Effect

[Use_Imagination_here]

I can't imagine what this would achieve. Anyone who likes online gaming enough for it to be a problem in their personal life WILL find a wa to get around this. Anyone alse will just be slightly annoyed and play offline.

 

[meromero]

i dont know a lot about the problmes with korea and the video game but from wath i've heard, it's a big problem there.

and for all the people saing that the state should NOT try to do things like this, remember that the state says its ilegal for minors to drink alcohol or smoke and we consider that to be alrigh!

it's al mathe of perspective

BTW: probably this will be like porn, they will ask "are you over 18?". You just say YES and there you go

 

[Akimoto]

Shouldn't the parents be doing this?

I wonder what the parents are doing actually. It's their job. Not the the government's responsibility to 'parent' the children. Maybe they should start with the parents first?

Than again, you've got to admire the South Korean Gov for having the guts to do it.

 

[StarCecil]

That's strange. I have the same law in my house...

 

[Dastardly]

.. This law doesn't justify their country's health with gamers really. All it does is limits people's rights and we all know that people do not like their rights to be restricted. They'll find ways around it, or simply lie to play after midnight.

Not to mention that they went about it the wrong way. It's a good plan, but the issue is that they did not take time to figure out better solutions. Sometimes, depending on the situation... time makes perfect especially for planning. So yeah, this won't help much. Also it makes me wonder why the Government wants to take responsibilities on the kids when it's the parents job to do so. Next thing we know, the Government will give everyone a personal reading time that they have to read for an hour outside of school.

Because if the parents do a shitty job of raising their kid, it can end up biting other people in the ass.

A for instance. The US has about 4% of the world's population, but 25% of the world's prisoners. And the second most common reason for incarceration is for violent crimes (Rape, murder, what have you. Things that affect OTHER people). Property crimes is number one.

Anywho, point is, the Government does actually have to step in and tell parents how to raise their kids if that many parents are doing such a shitty job of it.

"But the parents should be doing this!" BUT THEY AREN'T.

Also this.

Agree.

And what's more, sometimes the purpose of a law like this is to highlight the problem, rather than necessarily to fix it.

Here's what I mean -- the law says, "These hours are off limits if you're under 16." So kids lie. Or parents lie. Or parents don't watch, while their kids lie. Now the government can clearly say, "Alright. We tried to tell you how to fix it, you didn't fix it, so you'll understand when you starve to death because you can't hold down a job. No support for you."

The law isn't always out to fix problems. Sometimes, it's just there to highlight responsibility -- the government is giving you the warning, so if you fail to heed it, it's entirely on you now.

 

[Laxman9292]

Is it just me or do organizations named "Ministry of ____" sound more than a little sinister and controlling?

I feel a disturbance in the internet... as if millions of Starcraft accounts suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced for their bedtime

 

[ckam]

So, when are we going to talk about Tokyo and the Youth Ordinance Bill? I mean, yeah, it's not video games, but we do have anime sections for reason, right?

Anyway, this is obviously stupid and why not lessen the amount of homework one gets from school. People have to stay up to finish it.

 

[Celtois]

Eh.

I don't know why I ever expect anything different from the internet. Doesn't seem to matter where you go. Someone is always screaming about freedom.

I pray for a rapid collapse of this modern anarchistic society and a return to something within the realm of sense. Where limits to freedom to aren't considered a cause for outrage.

 

[boag]

I see a lot of people concerned about this, but there are some major points for doing it.

1.- Gaming has affected the country to such an extent that the goverment had to intervene, since the majority of gaming SK doesn´t occur in the home but at online cafes.

2.- Gaming is not a right, no matter how much people view it as so, it is a privilege and a luxury. Making a law that prohibits gaming for a certain age groups isnt as different as a law that Prohibits alcohol use and smoking to minors.

Overall, it is an interesting idea, and if people really dislike it they will vote agaisnt it.

 

[LilithSlave]

I have mixes feelings on this.

For starters, it's far too authoritarian for me to be even remotely comfortable with.

At the same time, South Korea seems to have a dangerous video game addiction problem. And more specifically an online game addiction problem. People take it so seriously that even celebrities have killed themselves over online trolling/bullying which has, as I've heard, to the also authoritarian and draconian KSSN system. Meaning that Westerners are unable to play on Korean servers which is not fair at all.

Personally, I think that South Korea just needs less restrictive laws in general. I understand the problem, but losing freedoms just doesn't pay. They should not only do away with this, but also the KSSN requirement.

Darn it! Some of us Westerners want to play on Asian servers, you know!

 

[DrGhost]

America!! Fuck Yeahhh!!!

 

[Zeekar]

I'm against excessive prohibition because it just winds up turning innocent people into law-breakers rather than actually preventing anything, but I can definitely see the sense in this law.

It's a "law" the PARENTS should be enacting, though. It isn't the government's place to be a nanny.