Korea to Impose Gaming Black-Out Periods

April 12, 2010

In a bid to limit the screen time of its young gamers, Korea has unveiled some drastic initiatives.

Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will try to block certain online games after midnight, reports the Korea Herald. Midnight, however, appears to be a generic term, as gamers will be able to choose their specific six-hour long gaming black-out period: 12AM – 6AM, 1AM - 7AM or 2AM - 8 AM. Under the plan, online access to massively multiplayer games would automatically shut off at the appointed time.

A secondary aspect of the policy would have the Internet speeds of young gamers throttled down if users remain online for a “lengthy” period of time. The slowdown policy is said to be in current testing on four online games, with plans to spread the procedure to 19 games in total in the second half of 2010.

The Ministry will also target young gamers who use the registration numbers of their parents in order to circumnavigate such restrictions.

Posted in Game Addiction Game Consumer News Games & Culture Korea Youth

Comments

Re: Korea to Impose Gaming Black-Out Periods

Submitted by sharpshooterbabe on Sat, 04/17/2010 - 12:16.

That is stupid! I'm glad I don't live in Korea. But I bet one of the MMO's is WOW.

"It's better to be hated for who you are, then be loved for who you are not." - Montgomery Gentry

Re: Korea to Impose Gaming Black-Out Periods

Submitted by Shahab on Tue, 04/13/2010 - 03:19.

Wow, talk about one of the stupidest ideas in the history of human thought. I hope the people responsible DIAF.

Re: Korea to Impose Gaming Black-Out Periods

Submitted by Aliasalpha on Tue, 04/13/2010 - 06:33.

Direct International Action Films??

Thats a crazy reward!

Re: Korea to Impose Gaming Black-Out Periods

Submitted by Aliasalpha on Tue, 04/13/2010 - 01:07.

Oops, double post and no delete button

Re: Korea to Impose Gaming Black-Out Periods

Submitted by Aliasalpha on Tue, 04/13/2010 - 01:06.

So what, gamers are like mogwai? Never feed them after midnight?

Re: Korea to Impose Gaming Black-Out Periods

Submitted by Lcpuche on Mon, 04/12/2010 - 15:35.

2 Am to 8 am

why would you play that late? idd be sleeping :)

Re: Korea to Impose Gaming Black-Out Periods

Submitted by josh111888 on Tue, 04/13/2010 - 00:17.

A lot of people prefer to be up at night and sleep in the morning. Also, if you work the graveyard shift, then your days off would put your free time sometime between 12:00 AM to 8:00AM.

Re: Korea to Impose Gaming Black-Out Periods

Submitted by Cerabret100 on Mon, 04/12/2010 - 14:19.

I'm sure someone will discover some way to mask whatever the program uses to identify and target people for throttling or black-outs, therefore just switching said info every couple of hours, completely negating the system.

Re: Korea to Impose Gaming Black-Out Periods

Submitted by hellfire7885 on Mon, 04/12/2010 - 12:26.

Under a week before someone has a way to bypass it.

Re: Korea to Impose Gaming Black-Out Periods

Submitted by Chris Kimberley on Mon, 04/12/2010 - 13:34.

I call 24-48 hours in the pool...

===============

Chris Kimberley

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Chris Kimberley

Re: Korea to Impose Gaming Black-Out Periods

Submitted by lordlundar on Tue, 04/13/2010 - 11:26.

If the means gets international support, I call the 12-24 block.

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james_fudge: Well we were just testing it. but it is still on the submission to fight $pam.05/23/2012 - 5:48pm

E. Zachary Knight: James, No I don't have it. I was just wondering who does and why. More curiosity than anything.05/23/2012 - 5:38pm

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DorthLous: Why? Not shocked that people are barking to an additional hoop to jump through when posting from their already logged in account or just mentionning this to try to paint me as one always complaining?05/23/2012 - 4:45pm

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Craig R.: I'm a One Man Quorum! And it's working for me now, thanks. :)05/23/2012 - 3:48pm

E. Zachary Knight: How do we determine who get's the game/captcha thingy? Is there a certain posting threshhold users have to meet before it is turned off?05/23/2012 - 2:25pm

james_fudge: Give it a chance, we're still adjusting it ;)05/23/2012 - 11:20am

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Craig R.: If I complete the stupid game, and it just deletes my comment, what's the point?05/23/2012 - 11:15am

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