Korean Children's Midnight Gaming Ban: The Kids Ignore It – Shock!

[qubit]

In South Korea, online gaming addiction in young children is reaching high enough levels and apparently doing enough "harm" that the government is trying to do something about it. Just over a month ago, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) and the Ministry of Gender Equality (MGEF) introduced the "Shutdown Law", also known as the "Cinderella Law" which forbids children under 16 from playing online games between midnight and 6am. Unsurprisingly, the kids are not too keen on this brand new restriction of their gaming fix. However, in a move that will surprise no-one (well hopefully, anyway) the kids do what kids do best and are either outright ignoring it or finding workarounds. This is rather easy to do, because they can do simple things such as log on using the accounts of older friends and family, or just play single player games, of which there is a huge variety available for every platform.



To gauge the effectiveness of this new law, a panel commissioned by This Is Game has researched its impact and discovered that the kids are indeed widely using workarounds to these restrictions to the point where the law is having a negligible effect and is effectively a waste of time and taxpayer's money. A youth going by the nickname Maemi was interviewed, who confirmed the workarounds and also blamed the problem on there being too much study:

All of my friends and others well know about the Shutdown system. But all of them said nothing would change because we all could still either play the online games with our parents' IDs or play other games not under the policy such as console games or mobile games. This system is meaningless. Moreover I heard that the system was to guarantee our right to sleep, but we cannot sleep not because of the game but overwhelming amount of study. I honestly cannot understand why this policy exists.

So, if they have too much study to do, how can they have any time to game?

KiMin Yang, a researcher at Cultural Society Institute, acknowledged the futility of this law and believes that new anti-addiction methods should be explored instead of prohibition and that the country should try to understand its children better. So, assuming that gaming is really as harmful as the Korean government thinks, then how can anything be done to stop this, other than have parents try to make their children understand and instil some discipline into them? Good luck with that.

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[digibucc]

punishment instead of treatment, that is the way of the world huh?

 

[Black Panther]

It's sad when a government ends up doing the job parents should do..

 

[xBruce88x]

aww no one got him Starcraft 2.

 

[Millennium]

I can see this problem spreading, and perhaps even similar laws. Maybe they should loosen up the restrictions over weekends, though.

 

[Drone]

It's all about upbringing and amount of free time.

 

[TheMailMan78]

It's sad when a government ends up doing the job parents should do..

The government can never do the job of a parent. That's a deadly misconception which seems to be very popular today.

 

[qubit]

The government can never do the job of a parent. That's a deadly misconception which seems to be very popular today.

Yeah, they call it the "nanny state", a very appropriate name.

 

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

Amazing how one country spend time, effort and money for something that can be mitigated by simple domestic procedures

 

[faramir]

I can see this problem spreading, and perhaps even similar laws. Maybe they should loosen up the restrictions over weekends, though.

... because kids under 16 absolutely MUST get their fix of midnight to 6 AM gaming fix, otherwise they'll go Angry German Kid ... or something ?

It';s absurd that parents are irresponsible enough to ever allow their young ones be anywhere but in bed at such late hours. Parents should be fined for child neglect on top of online curfew. As somebody else has said, it's sad that government must step in because parents are so out of touch with reality.

 

[Moose]

Seriously this law is horrendously stupid! It's like someone saying "we can solve car crashes due to tiredness, no driving after midnight!" Some 15 yr olds may just play their games after midnight for an hour a day, yet that is banned during holidays? When I was 15 I remember playing games after midnight as that was the time when everyone had gone to bed so I wasn't ignoring people.

 

[ensabrenoir]

When good intentions have bad execution u create a bigger problem than the one your trying to solve.:shadedshu

 

[AphexDreamer]

Good quality games need to be developed that are as fun to play as current popular games but are educational and use facts to educate the player about certain school subjects.

Instead of using all this fiction that games use and kids learn if we could somehow figure out the fun factor, keep it, maintain catchy story lines, and have kids solve real world problems that will teach them something about physics, math, etc then I think we would have a introduced a new medium in which kids can learn with.

Imagine Homework assigned by games, and reports turned in based on game stats.

 

[qubit]

Good quality games need to be developed that are as fun to play as current popular games but are educational and use facts to educate the player about certain school subjects.

Instead of using all this fiction that games use and kids learn if we could somehow figure out the fun factor, keep it, maintain catchy story lines, and have kids solve real world problems that will teach them something about physics, math, etc then I think we would have a introduced a new medium in which kids can learn with.

Imagine Homework assigned by games, and reports turned in based on game stats.

You have a point there, especially the bold bit. Here in the UK, there's a BBC science program called Bang Goes The Theory. It's broadcast as 6 weekly half hour episodes and the way they teach science using everyday materials and home made projects, along with the enthusiasm of the presenters makes for a really interesting program. It really is one of those programs that will interest people from 8 to 80 years old. And the fact that Liz Bonnin is beautiful really doesn't hurt, either...

 

[Solaris17]

The biggest issue i read was "Parents accounts" I think we found the problem.

 

[STCNE]

I do most of my gaming late at night. If they are going to do something, maybe limit the hours one is allowed to play instead of setting times. I do think there needs to be some kind of limit but maybe the government isn't the one who should be setting it, where are the parents? watching TV and ignoring their kids if its anything like it is here in the US.

 

[Fierce Guppy]

Yeah, they call it the "nanny state", a very appropriate name.

Behind every nanny state is a nation populated with authoritarian momma's boys. One model only rolls off the production lines of South Korea's public schools and it is identical to the model mass produced in your country and in mine. It comes in only one colour: an emotionally unhinged, intellectually stunted grey.

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

^

 

[NC37]

It's sad when a government ends up doing the job parents should do..

Unfortunately its everywhere. We use the schools to do the same thing, then get mad at it when it tries to discipline. Schools have ended up being more scared of one angry parent than of making sure the brat doesn't get away with it.

 

[Frizz]

Reminds me of this video from family guy , the only causes are that I can think of are parents and lack of social life.

 

[TheMailMan78]

See the issue is they have to strong of a porn filter over there. If they allowed more porn to reach the children their social life would blossom. Every guy on here over the age of 30 remembers first seeing a naked lady in a National Geographic or their dads Penthouse stash. We remember thinking "How in the hell am I gonna get to bang one in real life". We went to school and tried to talk to every skirt there. Games at 3 am? I didn't have time for that until I was married. I learned so much too. All about biology and viruses. Things you cannot pick up in StarCraft.

 

[amd/atifiend]

See the issue is they have to strong of a porn filter over there. If they allowed more porn to reach the children their social life would blossom. Every guy on here over the age of 30 remembers first seeing a naked lady in a National Geographic or their dads Penthouse stash. We remember thinking "How in the hell am I gonna get to bang one in real life". We went to school and tried to talk to every skirt there. Games at 3 am? I didn't have time for that until I was married. I learned so much too. All about biology and viruses. Things you cannot pick up in StarCraft.

^ so true...as well as learned new chemistry techniques to expand consciousness and creativity of myself and others to hasten the acquisition of said biological goods.

 

[Mussels]

my parents tried this with me.


thats how i learned wifi hacking and password cracking techniques >.>

 

[Lazzer408]

It's sad when a government ends up doing the job parents should do..

Unfortunatly it takes 2 parents working 2 jobs to pay the bills.

 

[laszlo]

they better find a way to program all pc's to shut down at midnight