Proposed measures to limit teenagers from playing games between midnight and 6 a.m. have slowed down to a crawl, as issues surrounding the reach and legality of the legislation are being debated in South Korea. The Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family disagree over how many games should be affected by the law. The Family Ministry feels every online game, including mobile, computers, and consoles, should be included under the law’s umbrella, while the Culture Ministry feels the law should extend only to computer online games.
Although the gaming curfew was proposed as part of a Youth Protection Act after an infamous incident of a 3-month baby being left to starve to death while her parents were playing online games, the law has eventually been shaped as such to affect only the under-15 demographic.
Governmental agencies have yet to agree on a start date for the law even if consensus is reached and the law is enabled.
The proposed regulations would indeed have an impact on gamers under the age of 15, since age verification is part of the login process for playing an online game, whether at home or the popular cyber-cafe “bangs.” Some have questioned the efficacy of such a law, however, since some children may find ways around the age verification process that would lock them out of their games they play.
[Source: stuff.co.nz]
