South Korea Imposes Midnight Gaming Ban To Combat Addiction

"Other people sacrifice their sons to the nation, but I gave my son away to online games," one South Korean mother told Donga, a South Korean news outlet.

In an effort to curb video game addiction among youth, South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has implemented a sort of gaming "curfew" that will block underage users from accessing online computer games after midnight.

A survey of over 1,500 public school students conducted by the Korea Youth Counseling Institute found that nearly a third (29.3 percent) showed signs of game addiction, while nearly 40 percent of male students were determined to be addicted.

The Korea Herald offers details on the proposed video game ban:

According to the ministry, underaged users will be forced out of gaming sessions when online access automatically shuts down as soon as the clock strikes midnight.

The policy also includes a "slowdown" system in which internet connection speeds will be stifled dramatically if underaged users are logged on for a lengthy period of time.

Users would be able to choose between three different, six-hour "blackout" periods: midnight to 6AM, 1AM to 7AM, or 1AM to 8AM.

According to the Korea Herald, it seems the ban will apply only to a select group of online games, or around 19 role playing games in all, which together represent around 79 percent of South Korea's online gaming market. These would include "Maple Story," "Mabinogi," and "Barameui Nara."

Comments

[daa5417]

11:41 PM on 04/14/2010

I think that most of you are making blanket statement based on your understanding of American culture not Korean culture. You don't even know the seriousness of gaming over here. (I'm not Korean, I am currently teaching English over here). They have channels where you can watch people play videos games. And you don't have to get a cable package for this...this is normal TV.

In addition to the story of the parents who let their 3 month old baby die because they were busy taking care of a virtual child for 16 hours a day in a PC bang (internet cafe), I have heard two other stories of how children have killed their parents from bothering them about going to the PC bangs all the time. In one case, the kid killed his mother and then went to the PC bang like nothing happened.

This may not be the best solution, but at least their trying to solve a very serious problem. This is definitely not America. The only after school activities over here are academically tailored. Unless you go to a sports high school, there is no basketball team, volleyball team, anything.

Yes, you can say..."I was addicted to video games at some point, but I got too old for it" or "It's not that serious, I like playing video games too." But just imagine your love for video games and multiply it by 10 and that's a South Korean.

[MalteseTiger]

06:17 PM on 04/13/2010

Which is worse?? Korean gamers or chinese farmers?

[lightningbolt]

04:40 PM on 04/13/2010

The South Korean government is setting itself up for a revolution.

[Cole 33]

12:04 PM on 04/13/2010

So I guess watching TV all night is still cool? I never understood it, if you watch TV for hours and hours on end it's somehow not as bad as being ENGAGED and mentally active with something on that tv.

[Xenite]

11:50 AM on 04/13/2010

Not surprising, I used to play an MMO called Lineage. Never was very popular here, but in Korea it's a national past time. Used to hear stories all the time about how young Korean girls sell sex for in game items and a few had even murdered others for what they considered in game feuds.

In Korea, if someone ninja's loots, the raid actually goes to the house and beats them with bats lol. :P

[StansDad]

11:24 AM on 04/13/2010

finally, maybe then i can win some goddamn starcraft games

[levoyageur]

12:30 PM on 04/13/2010

lol.. i can't wait for starcraft 2 to come out.

[aristippe]

01:51 PM on 04/13/2010

hey the betas out

[ilovecandy]

11:02 AM on 04/13/2010

No doubt, they'll find a way around it.

[xtiangodloki]

09:48 AM on 04/13/2010

This is an example of what will the Korean teenagers will do once they learn that they can no longer do these 6 hour raids in MMORPGs, or stay up until 2 am just to get that extra edge in Starcraft.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YersIyzsOpc

[TheSpiritAlchemist]

09:47 AM on 04/13/2010

Great, another overreaction to the nonexistent video game addiction. As an avid gamer, I know that if someone becomes 'addicted' to a video game, it's not the game itself that's the problem. It's the person, and they're having issues that extend beyond 'an addiction video games'.

[Lore Splitt]

09:33 PM on 04/13/2010

Exactly, I have a blast playing games myself- but, I've had many friends who became full on addicts. It's a form of escapism, self medication. A way to avoid the stresses they can't handle. When they game, they can be someone else far away from their issues.

A friend became obsessed with Second Life, and I checked it out because he said you could make decent money from it. I found that many (not all) were fairly traumatized people who were living their lives in a virtual world because they couldn't handle the real one. And WOE is anyone who said it was a game, or not "real life". I made that mistake too many times. To them "It is real life, it's just in a virtual world."

People became "famous" in that game, and fact is, if they did the same things in their real life, they'd be just as successful in all likely hood. But again, there's something wrong with those particular people who need to withdraw and push people away on that level.

Overall, I found it disturbing, and though the potential was high to make cash- Spending time on there depressed me. So many people would have their avatars have programmable babies, with a full pregnancy, because they couldn't have children in real life-

It isn't the case for everyone, but, compulsive game playing *could* be the sign of something more.

[spytheweb]

09:45 AM on 04/13/2010

This won't fix the problem. Now you will have kids who played after midnight pushing it to get their time in before midnight. You have the same number of people squeezing in their playing time into a smaller window.

The minute the ban is lifted, say 8:am, the system will be flooded.

Frontline report on internet addiction, and in Korea too.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/virtual-worlds/internet-addiction/

[exigent]

09:33 AM on 04/13/2010

While in the navy we frequently stopped in S. Korea. We'd try to go to internet cafes to email out friends and relatives (this was before ships had satellite connections) but they'd be packed with kids playing everquest and starcraft. It's really quite an interesting phenomenon.

[ZiloRS]

08:31 AM on 04/13/2010

Umm it sounds like South Korea has deeper problems they are not dealing with, deeper than just game addiction. Besides video games obviously being fun, I would examine why that many people feel they need to escape from reality. That's a pretty large percentage of people to be addicted for a country.

[HatingTheGame]

06:18 AM on 04/13/2010

Wasn't there a story about how a South Korean couple let their child die of malnutrition as they were caring for their virtual child online? I think this ties into that.

Not to single our S. Koreans (although they are odd wrt to their online worlds), but the whole world is heading this way. The borderlands between real and the unreal (not imaginary, just unreal) is blurring everyday.

[jws2346]

08:49 AM on 04/13/2010

Yeah, but the article says "underage users"? To be sure the parents, of that despicable act you mentioned, would not be effected by this curfew?

[General Public]

05:53 AM on 04/13/2010

Great, another law restricting individual liberty, except this time it's something I actually do myself, namely play video games late at night. I am so glad I don't live in South Korea! How about GETTING RID of laws that restrict individual liberty? If you are worried about KIDS playing games late at night, how about having their PARENTS stop them? And if it is ADULTS like me who do it, don't take away our freedoms!!! For many gamers, their lives suck and playing video games is one of their few pleasures in life, and late at night is one of the few times they have to be left alone and play video games without someone else bothering them all the time. Is South Korea trying to increase its suicide rate? This law is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard of. South Korea should crack down on corrupt businessmen or other bad people, not harmless ordinary gamers who are just trying to have some fun in life. WHERE IS THE VICTIM IN THESE "CRIMES"?!? The only "victim" is the perpetrator themselves! Laws where the victim is the same person as the perpetrator SHOULD NEVER EXIST. PERIOD. All they do is take away people's freedoms in daily life and bring people closer to a totalitarian system with no individual freedom. Individual freedom should be maximized, not minimized, and I say that as a proud liberal/progressive Democrat.

[rd79]

06:01 AM on 04/13/2010

i say, it is a good thing.
Every time i play an online game, i am getting my ass kicked by some korean kid.
Those kids need less pratice time.

[bismillah001]

10:04 AM on 04/13/2010

lol

[paganmist]

09:26 AM on 04/13/2010

I would agree with you, except for the simple fact that mental illnesses are nearly impossible to combat without outside help, and we're ALL capable of having a mental illness.

There was a study that shows that in many depressed people, the brain actually becomes addicted to the chemicals which produce depression. How is the average person supposed to combat something that they don't understand, don't realize is happening, and can't actually control?

Any one of us can have that tendency - to become addicted to something. And addiction to anything can wreck your entire life, before you even realize that it is a problem (because that's the thing about addiction - it doesn't seem like a problem, until you've lost everything.)

So I applaud S. Korea for taking some steps to correct this. A gov't has a responsibility to keep its people safe, from enemies without and within, from things outside of the average person's control. And this kind of addiction has proven itself to be out of many people's control.

[Persson4]

03:30 AM on 04/13/2010

Hey dose anyone know what game that guy is playing?

[a68deville]

04:00 AM on 04/13/2010

I was going to ask the same thing.

[rd79]

06:02 AM on 04/13/2010

isn't that red alert 3, only zoomed in on his ships?