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."

Stupid

[girlintraining]

A lot of kids just suddenly turned 18...

Re:Oh thank God

[surmak]

But only from 2-6AM Korea time.

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?

[X-Dopple]

Actually in South Korea it's more likely than not the kids will be studying at any number of academies until midnight. I doubt there's any opportunity for them to get into trouble.

Re:Stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

I believe he is suggesting that players would modify their date of birth in their player profiles to say they are over 18 to circumvent the law.

Re:Government bailout

[Chris Burke]

So, basically this will only increase their time spent playing non-listed games.

Yeah. Think of it as the Unpopular MMO Promotion Act. Encouraging a healthy ecosystem of MMOs, when smaller ones normally have trouble stealing enough subscribers from the big ones to stay afloat. That's it. That's the ticket.

While we sleep?

[lemur3]

How about I use my block during the hours of sleep i enjoy at night...... or while i am at work/school.....

yeah this will work out perfectly!

This is probably not going to work

[tann0r]

All this is going to do is cause the MMOs that aren't on the initial list to see a huge rise in traffic during the blackout hours. So now instead of focusing all of their time on leveling one blue haired angel that can do a flying knee kick at the face of a tree who spits fairy dust at you -- they will have two to worry about. If these kid's parents are allowing them to spend upwards of 12 hours a day in front of the computer I have a feeling they aren't paying enough attention to know whether they are playing Maple Story or a lesser known (but just as time consuming) title.

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:Stupid

[girlintraining]

I rather doubt this will be possible. To sign up for pretty much anything online in Korea (with the exception of sites that cater to an international audience) you must enter your "resident registration number." And like wikipedia so kindly tells us, the first six digits of that number is ones date of birth.

Yeah, because registration based on a number has worked so well in other countries and systems that impliment it...

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.

Re:Freedom?

[LandDolphin]

While I do not refute that there might be some evidence to support starting school at 11. I am not sure that a later start time for school would mean that kids would just stay up later than they already do.

Re:Stupid

[Daengbo]

Korea has an online ID law, so I don't think that would work. Real identities with real national ID numbers are used.

Re:Stupid

[crossmr]

Generate them all day. it won't do you any good. Your name and the number is verified against the database. Any site which implements this system (which is all of them) must actually connect to the government database to verify. You also often have to verify your account with an SMS message to a cellphone registered in the same name. You cannot fake them. you can steal them, but you cannot fake them. So yes, they're completely worthwhile for verification. Other than people using stolen/borrowed ones, they know who everyone is.