Sth Korean gamers suffer joystick curfew shock

A ban restricting all South Korean gamers under 16 from playing online games between midnight and 6am is now in full affect. South Korea, boasting the fifth largest broadband penetration rate, is the first country to implement the controversial initiative under the Youth Protection Revision bill. The bill, variously known as …

[TuckerJJ]

Effect!

[RichyB]

To be quite honest its not a bad thing is it..

[NB]

#

Seems to me that a section of South Korean society has serious issues with facing reality and what the government and people themselves should be doing is addressing this social malaise rather than legilsating to control it. They're only treating symptoms not causes here.

[Gadget Rage is BAD]

Surely its up to the parents..

to monitor kids playing games at that time of night?? i.e. Get to bed!! Aside from that XBox already has time limits etc for parents to use and I'm sure the PS3 has the same no? How exactly are they going to police it? Helicopter gunships hovering outside kids windows looking for the glow of a monitor?

Lunacy.

[Anonymous Coward]

How does this work?

Surely it relies on the parents enforcing it? If so, what's the point?

[Arnold Lieberman]

xbox

As far as I recall, when I looked at it the xbox only allows you to limit total time per day, not the hours played. We have to take my son's xbox controllers away from him at 10pm, as the internet connection dies and his PC logs out automatically, but we can't have the xbox do the same.

That's the hard limit, there is a soft limit of 9.30 which he rarely complies with.

[Anonymous Coward]

And he did not buy own controller yet?

How about disconnecting the whole internet connection during the night?

Or does your fridge needs it for ordering?

[Anonymous Coward]

"It’s regrettable how the government has branded game publishers as those with ill intentions"

May be that government is not that far off as usual.

The intention of the developers of 'World of Warcraft' is to make the gamer stay glued to the screen. They shall never want to stop playing. Same with drug dealers who want their customers to continue using their product. Only difference is that the effect of drugs is easier measured. but I bet that the negative effects reached a measurable level in South korea, so that is why the law was passed.