South Korea Announces Daily MMO Blackouts For Youths

eldavojohn writes "GamePolitics reports that South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism has announced two new policies that will force underage gamers to pick a six-hour block of time (midnight-6 AM,1-7 AM, or 2-8 AM) where they will not be able to play 19 online role-playing games. While it targets most popular MMORPGs, some popular games like Lineage were left off the list."

Comments

Stupid

[girlintraining]

A lot of kids just suddenly turned 18...

Re:Stupid

[compro01]

IIRC, registering for those online games in Korea requires your nation ID #, so that won't work.

Great!

[Computer_kid]

Now more kids are going to be on my lawn!

Freedom?

[commodore64_love]

I'm not seeing it. It should be left to the Parents to decide what kids should be doing late at night, and I'd certainly prefer my kid be home during those hours, rather than outside getting into trouble.

IMHO.

Re:Freedom?

[Renraku]

Because there's SO much to do in South Korea at night. This isn't about blocking MMOs, it's about trying to make sure that the kids have nothing better to do than go to sleep and get ready for school the next day. An appreciable number of young South Koreans play 10+ hours a day of MMOs and it will affect the next generations of the country.

However, this is the wrong way to go about fixing the problem. Perhaps they should make more things for young people to do at night, other than play MMOs?

Re:Freedom?

[BobMcD]

I'm not seeing it. It should be left to the Parents to decide what kids should be doing late at night, and I'd certainly prefer my kid be home during those hours, rather than outside getting into trouble.

IMHO.

Excellent point, but you're probably off-target.

Currently:

1) Kid eats supper, logs into (MMO)
2) Hours roll by
3) Kid glances at clock, notices that it is 2 AM
4) Kid thinks 'meh', and keeps playing
5) Kid notices the clock says 4 AM
6) Kid elects to get three hours of sleep before school

Ideally under the law:

1) Kid eats supper, logs into (MMO)
2) Hours roll by
3) Kid glances at clock, notices that it is 1 AM
4) Kid is blacked out from the game
5) Kid whines about it on Facebook a while, then goes to bed

Your scenario:

1) Kid eats supper, logs into (MMO)
2) Hours roll by
3) Kid glances at clock, notices that it is 1 AM
4) Kid is blacked out from the game
5) Kid goes on a crime spree...

I think the ideal scenario is more likely, as these are the kids that are electing to stay up way too late to play an MMO, rather than are out raising hell. In short, I think this law would have little impact on the types of kids who are out and about at that time of night.

Re:Freedom?

[LandDolphin]

it's about trying to make sure that the kids have nothing better to do than go to sleep and get ready for school the next day.

However, this is the wrong way to go about fixing the problem. Perhaps they should make more things for young people to do at night, other than play MMOs?

If the goal is to get the kids to go to sleep, how would providing more things to do besides MMOs help?

Re:Government bailout

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

And those commie bastards in NK better not even think about trying a zerg rush...

Oh thank God

[masmullin]

Now the rest of us can compete in PvP!!!

Re:While we sleep?

[compro01]

How about I use my block during the hours of sleep i enjoy at night

That's the point. The issue is that children are reportedly playing these games all night and not sleeping enough.