South Korea's legislation and judiciary committee has voted unanimously to move forward with a law that would prevent children under 15 from playing online games between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m., according to a Chosunilbo report.
The "Cinderella" law will now go to a vote by the country's full national assembly, after being first proposed last April by the country's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and officially submitted to parliament late last year.
That proposal also included a test program which slowed down connection speeds on certain online games for young children that remained logged in for too many consecutive hours.
Critics of the law point out that banning late night play will only affect a small portion of players, who could simply shift their playing time or use a borrowed or pirated registration ID. Some also worry the law's effectiveness will be limited because it does not apply to offline and console games.
Online gaming addiction has been a major concern in the highly connected nation for years, with highly publicized reports of a death caused by a multi-day gaming marathon and a suicide of a 15-year-old whose parents barred him from his favorite titles. The Korea Game Industry Agency trade group maintains a Center for Internet Addiction to address such concerns.
I really think the kids parents should be able to decide when their children are aloud to play games. The government really should not have had to make a law because of parents inability to parent.
"I really think kids parents should be able to decide when their children are aloud to play slot machines."
Doesn't sound so silly now does it? Game-addiction is a serious, well documented problem. And it's coming to the West along with the wave of "free to play" games. Hell the FTC is already investigating Capcom for Smurf Village after a kid spent $1,400 on smurf berries.
@ Joe. You are comparing apples and helicopters. You know that the games being talked about here are video games, and not slot machines. Although a slot machine is a game, I'm sure you are well aware of the difference in that type of gaming and the one stated in the law.
It does not matter if game addiction is a serious problem or not, it is still the parents job to watch over their children while playing games not the government of the country they live in.
And Why investigate Capcom, why not investigate the dumb ass who taught their child how to use a credit card on the computer (or left the card in a place that the kid could get their hands on).
The only thing is, most parents today don't really know the effects of video games on children, much less the ramifications of taking away something they don't see as an addictive substance. They listen to what little the news has to offer, and when there is a piece about video games in conjunction to children it is almost always based somewhat on stereotypes and hyperbole. For most of us, video games are fun, for the most part casual, and sometimes relaxing. They impact us only as an entertainment factor. But for some, especially a generation that has experienced very immersive and consistently (and virtually) rewarding games early on, they can become one of the few ways a person can satisfy that reward center of their brain, so they constantly want to keep it satisfied, in the form of getting to the top of leaderboards and achievements and the best loot (just a few examples). I mean at some point we've all stayed on a bit extra to get that last collectable item, or get to the next rank. For a few, it is a need. If parents were more knowledgable about the actual effects of an immersive entertainment medium on a younger mind, they might be able to effectively manage a child's use of it, instead of the immediate cut-off method that most parents seem to use today.
How are you going to enforce that!? Kids are a lot smarter than their parents. Proof? Look at the law they put out. It proves they don't know how to handle the next generation. Poor kids. Watching these relics attack the internet is bad for business and human progress.
That's a pretty specious argument, dude. Drunk driving is hardly a valid comparison.
I didn't say enforcement was hard - I said it was impossible - but that has nothing to do with the reason why I think the law is useless, it's just a hilarious coincidence. I don't believe this law would serve a practical or meaningful purpose regardless of whether it can be enforced or not.
I believe that I started pulling all night gaming sessions on Fridays, and Saturdays when I got to be around 12. Basically around the time that I was allowed to start regularly staying at friends houses overnight on the weekends. I think I started staying up past midnight on school nights by the time I hit 16, basically when I didn't have to wake up for the bus anymore. So if it was only school nights, then it probably wouldn't be that much of a problem.
Simply put this law will still be entirely forced by parents, and if they put age restrictions on their internet. Similar to pornography. Some parents will enforce it, others probably don't worry about it as much. I claimed I was 18 on-line long before I turned 18.
If anything this law will encourage many parents to allow their children full access to the internet at a much younger age now, because many parents would rather their children not get fined, or sent to a correctional facility.
Now slowing down their connection speed after they've been on for an extended period of time.... that's just cruel. Imagine a child gamer prodigy being in a heated Starcraft/Any Fighting Game Match, and their internet randomly starts lagging like crazy.
Both myself, and my parents are non-religious, however they took me to Sunday school from when I was 5-10, because during that age time-frame Sunday school is about 80% moral teaching, and 20% religion. They gave me the option to continue going after that if I wanted. They didn't reveal they were not religious to me at the time till I hit 18. Giving me my free will at age 10 to choose myself. I chose the lazy route of sleeping in on Sunday. Needless to say despite my choice of religion or not, the experience gave me much stronger morals than most.
Another good example is Karate. I showed interest at a young age, and my parents were for the idea. I took it for about 2 years, Most parents think that it is a form of violence. But martial arts teaches it's students that Violence should always be the last option.
Parents should teach their children intelligent decision making, not just making the choice for them.
I'm not sure what to think about this. But this is for children under 15. They are not able to make good decisions, or at least most aren't. I was 14 when Half-Life 2 came out, and I faked sick to get out of school so I could stay home and play it on the day that it came out. Not a great decision. I was definitely a lot more addicted to video games when I was younger than I am now. Like, when I was 15, on school nights, I would wait until my parents would go to sleep and sneak into our family computer room to play Guild Wars until 5 in the morning. I'm sure I'm not the only person who has ever done something like this. It was never that out of control or anything, and I've learned over time that those kind of habits aren't healthy, and I generally control when I game, but when I was younger, I didn't make very good decisions about these kinds of things.
I can see where people would say the parents should discipline, but also the merits of this being a legal law, although I don't think there's anything that could necessarily prevent a young teen from playing games for a ridiculous amount of time each day, in their own home, other than their parents.
Evan, you learned something from it right? I bet you even generalized it to more important decisions then just playing a game.
Look where you are now and ask your self if you went all that bad even though you did a million of foolish things when you were young.
Kids need the freedom to make mistakes to learn from them (that's why German law for example treats kids way more nicely then adults). Parents should be there with good advices, protecting from grave mistakes and when things unexpectedly turn out bad.
I'd be afraid of adults who never had the chance to learn form their mistakes. For example young English adults of 18 come to my mind when they come to Germany and discover that they are suddenly allowed to drink alcohol. Can you imagine what happens...? Yes, it really ends way to often in the hospital or in violence...
Tim - they do have a problem. 7% - 13% of youth addicted to video games, depending on who's figures you believe. Even at 7%, we are talking actual addiction here - the same "harm to multiple areas of your life" definition used to define alcoholism in the west.
Look, I make my living by making games. I'm not some anti-gaming nut. But if we bury our head in the sand and pretend there's no problem, well that's what Capcom did and look at the result: the FTC investigating our industry. If we keep acting this way there WILL be regulations here too, regulations inflicted upon us from without.
None of us want that. Which is why I argue we need to be discussing standards for ethical game design, so that we can self regulate (like the ESRB rating system) before laws are forced upon us. Sadly I have little hope because few want to discuss it, you either get people ridiculing the very idea (as in this thread) or pulling the Rodney Dangerfield "I can't get no respect I tells ya!" social-gaming routines that passed for debate at GDC.
Its good to have multiple positive sources to affect a child upbringing, if parents fail in their role to teach their children, then hopefully they learn from school, if the school fails then hopefully they learn from their environment ( good community and good friends) if all of that fails then its good to see another source such as law coming into affect, from experience we used to spend 14 hours in a gaming café, I started doing that during university days and that had severe results on my grades, as for kids, they should be protected, life is long they will get chance to play to their full.
This law is more to stop them from spending nights outside the house in a cafe surrounded by strangers, till 4am in the morning, the cafe shops will have to enforce them, like in cinemas with adult movies and bars.
"I really think kids parents should be able to decide when their children are aloud to play slot machines."
Doesn't sound so silly now does it? Game-addiction is a serious, well documented problem. And it's coming to the West along with the wave of "free to play" games. Hell the FTC is already investigating Capcom for Smurf Village after a kid spent $1,400 on smurf berries.
It does not matter if game addiction is a serious problem or not, it is still the parents job to watch over their children while playing games not the government of the country they live in.
And Why investigate Capcom, why not investigate the dumb ass who taught their child how to use a credit card on the computer (or left the card in a place that the kid could get their hands on).
The end of this sentence should read: "it's virtually impossible to enforce this ridiculous law."
On a related note, "Center for Internet Addiction"? Really? Life is so hard in the first world >.>
That's just silly. Enforcement of drunk driving is hard, many get away scot-free, so why even try? See how absurd your argument is?
I didn't say enforcement was hard - I said it was impossible - but that has nothing to do with the reason why I think the law is useless, it's just a hilarious coincidence. I don't believe this law would serve a practical or meaningful purpose regardless of whether it can be enforced or not.
Simply put this law will still be entirely forced by parents, and if they put age restrictions on their internet. Similar to pornography. Some parents will enforce it, others probably don't worry about it as much. I claimed I was 18 on-line long before I turned 18.
If anything this law will encourage many parents to allow their children full access to the internet at a much younger age now, because many parents would rather their children not get fined, or sent to a correctional facility.
Now slowing down their connection speed after they've been on for an extended period of time.... that's just cruel. Imagine a child gamer prodigy being in a heated Starcraft/Any Fighting Game Match, and their internet randomly starts lagging like crazy.
Silly Humans...
While some might hate this,
Both myself, and my parents are non-religious, however they took me to Sunday school from when I was 5-10, because during that age time-frame Sunday school is about 80% moral teaching, and 20% religion. They gave me the option to continue going after that if I wanted. They didn't reveal they were not religious to me at the time till I hit 18. Giving me my free will at age 10 to choose myself. I chose the lazy route of sleeping in on Sunday. Needless to say despite my choice of religion or not, the experience gave me much stronger morals than most.
Another good example is Karate. I showed interest at a young age, and my parents were for the idea. I took it for about 2 years, Most parents think that it is a form of violence. But martial arts teaches it's students that Violence should always be the last option.
Parents should teach their children intelligent decision making, not just making the choice for them.
I can see where people would say the parents should discipline, but also the merits of this being a legal law, although I don't think there's anything that could necessarily prevent a young teen from playing games for a ridiculous amount of time each day, in their own home, other than their parents.
Look where you are now and ask your self if you went all that bad even though you did a million of foolish things when you were young.
Kids need the freedom to make mistakes to learn from them (that's why German law for example treats kids way more nicely then adults). Parents should be there with good advices, protecting from grave mistakes and when things unexpectedly turn out bad.
I'd be afraid of adults who never had the chance to learn form their mistakes. For example young English adults of 18 come to my mind when they come to Germany and discover that they are suddenly allowed to drink alcohol. Can you imagine what happens...? Yes, it really ends way to often in the hospital or in violence...
Look, I make my living by making games. I'm not some anti-gaming nut. But if we bury our head in the sand and pretend there's no problem, well that's what Capcom did and look at the result: the FTC investigating our industry. If we keep acting this way there WILL be regulations here too, regulations inflicted upon us from without.
None of us want that. Which is why I argue we need to be discussing standards for ethical game design, so that we can self regulate (like the ESRB rating system) before laws are forced upon us. Sadly I have little hope because few want to discuss it, you either get people ridiculing the very idea (as in this thread) or pulling the Rodney Dangerfield "I can't get no respect I tells ya!" social-gaming routines that passed for debate at GDC.
This law is more to stop them from spending nights outside the house in a cafe surrounded by strangers, till 4am in the morning, the cafe shops will have to enforce them, like in cinemas with adult movies and bars.