South Korea Blocks Late-Night Online Gaming for Adolescents 108
PolygamousRanchKid writes "In its effort to curb game addiction among adolescents, South Korea pulled the plug this weekend on young gamers after midnight by blocking access to game websites, putting a hotly debated law into practice. The new system called the 'shutdown law,' also referred to as the 'Cinderella law,' blocks those under the age of 16 from accessing gaming websites after midnight and has fueled heated anger among younger gamers and avid game fans. Critics point out that many teenagers hold gaming accounts created with their parent's personal information, easily providing them with an alternative log-in option. 'You can say someone is an alcoholic if they drink more than three bottles (of liquor) a day, but you can't call them alcoholic because they drink after midnight. It's the same with gaming,' Lee Byung-chan, the lawyer who filed the petition on behalf of parents and a young gamer said. 'From the parents' point of view, it violates their right to educate their children,' Lee added. It is for the parents to decide what time they want to allow their children to play games or not, not for the government to exclude them from that process, the argument goes."
Another idea (Score:4, Insightful)
Having people exert themselves mentally or physically actually does make them tired. Games dont do either.
Re:Another idea (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Military Service (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Another idea (Score:4, Insightful)
Pot circles, keggers, and wild make-out parties are excellent after-school activities for healthy teenagers. Perhaps they could get school district funding.
Re:Another idea (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Another idea (Score:4, Insightful)
Sports beyond football have been known to exist - baseball, tennis, swimming etc. If you want to expand beyond that, there's marching band, dance, ballet, cheerleading etc which require more finesse and coordination, but less brute strength. The same skills you list to be learned from SC can be learned on the speech or debate team at any school, and are more directly transferable to jobs. I don't doubt people enjoy SC (otherwise Blizzard may not have existed today) but I have reservations about how well being a top notch SC player translates in to being a successful person in meatspace. Many speech/debate students at the national level end up as successful law students based on the skills they learned through debate.
Re:Another idea (Score:2, Insightful)
'socialization' isn't the only thing to vie for in life. it's a component, not the be-all-end-all. also, many of these kids would be ridiculed if they tried out for athletic teams.
That attitude is self-defeating. Any kid can learn a sport well enough to compete if they try. With rare exceptions, high school sports really aren't all that competitive, and if your school does have a top tier team in one sport, you can just aim for another. It's healthy, it builds self-confidence, and it preps you for later in life when you meet new people who might want to do a pickup game of basketball or start a company softball team.
Our culture likes to push this idea that if you're smart you must be an unathletic weakling. It's self-fulfilling. We tell kids that if they're smart, they'd just humiliate themselves by trying out for a team. They believe it, don't try out, and become weak for lack of exercise.
Re:Another idea (Score:4, Insightful)
How about everyone does what they enjoy in their time? Why does the state or you for that matter think you know what's best for someone else?
Games get a higher priority over studies then? (Score:4, Insightful)
A) I can do homework and studies after midnight, but no games, then I am going to game till midnight and study after that
but if the restriction wasnt there,
B) I would finish off studies first and game after that for whatever amount of time I want
in A, I'm playing with a fresh mind, and studying with a tired mind
In B its the reverse
Why would the govt. want students to study with a tired mind?
Re:Another idea (Score:4, Insightful)
Your comment raises another interesting question: when does someone cease to be a child? At 21, when they are allowed to drink alcohol? At 18, like in Europe? At 16, when they are allowed to drive a car? At 14, when they get their ID card (at least here in RO)? Or are these all, um, I don't know, standard ages that don't really reflect anything?
I remember being more mature at 14 than most of my school mates; I was interested in the same things and activities people aged 20-24 were usually performing (except sex, that was still blurry to me, of course). I was rather lonely at school because of that. Even now, in my low 30s, I would rather spend time with people aged 40+ because they better fit my areas of interest and I have more productive discussions with them.
So please... I was perfectly able to function as an adult at 16. On the other hand, some people can't properly function as adults even after reaching 40.
It's down to the human being itself; so when a government applies a blanket law like this I call bullshit.
"Everyone under age of 16 shouldn't play games after midnight" - probably holds true up to some extent. But actually forbidding it - that's dangerously close to dictatorship.
Re:Another idea (Score:4, Insightful)