SK to impose midnight ban on internet

[Rise_Against]

What this ban does: It will cut off the internet connection between the hours of 12:00AM and 6:00AM for underage users. Underage users are defined as people below the age of 18. The purpose of this is to prevent people from becoming gaming addicts (using the internet to do online multiplayer which is a huge problem in South Korea). Once you hit the magic age of 18, the ban no longer affects you.

How is the ban enforced: South Korean residence have given up some forms of privacy in order to have safer online experiences. Their KSSN (Korean Social Security Number) is tied with their accounts. This protects against identity theft as once an account is made with one KSSN, no other accounts can be made in their name. It also creates the infamous gated community that locks out foreigners from participating in their online game servers (for most games).

Note: This does not affect ability to play during other hours in anyway

Personally I would, but with unrestricted access during holidays and weekends (Friday and Saturday) But on the other hand it's kind of the parents job to make sure that their kids are studying and not gaming their future away. Unfortunately, this has no effect on LAN's or offline play, so it is somewhat ineffective in a culture where gaming is a common hobby.

You also have to understand that Korea is a nation based on really big cities that have PC-bangs (computer labs specifically built for people to game) as far as the eye can see in them. For super cheap rates (about 1 dollar for an hour) can have you playing games installed on those computers for extensive amounts of time. This of course leads to a much higher interest in gaming than you see in the US.

Would you support something like this in your country?

Personally I would, but with unrestricted access during holidays and weekends (Friday and Saturday) But on the other hand it's kind of the parents job to make sure that their kids are studying and not gaming their future away. Unfortunately, this has no effect on LAN's or offline play, so it is somewhat ineffective in a culture where gaming is a common hobby.

 

[Necuno]

afaik we don't have dying teens due to games. rather than wasting time on this i would want the government to properly address some root issues that would have some real effect and value onto our lives than to go some easy target and easy fix "problems".

you do realize that this can also would be the start for us of something like china's red wall. next they cut off all access to site X or site Y.

 

[Duke Dude]

afaik we don't have dying teens due to games. rather than wasting time on this i would want the government to properly address some root issues that would have some real effect and value onto our lives than to go some easy target and easy fix "problems".

you do realize that this can also would be the start for us of something like china's red wall. next they cut off all access to site X or site Y.

Yup, I'm with Prophet on this one. I would support the building of gaming bars though
First China and now look at whats happend to OZ. Now thank you. I like surfing sites X and Y, thanks you very much.

 

[Rise_Against]

Not going to happen. South Korea is willing to give up some privacy for protection (which has worked out quite well for them) but they still have rights that just will not be infringed. If anything could be said about SK restricting access to sites X and Y would be foreigners' access to websites (creating sites where Korean citizens have exclusive access). Many games have their online games exclusive to South Korean residence to help reduce lag on their servers.

SK wouldn't even have considered this ban at all if it wasn't such a serious problem in SK. In South Korea, it's considered normal to go hang out at PC-bangs with friends and just game (where as in America, it's normal to grab a group of friends and go hang out at a mall and what not).

This also only applies specifically to the PC platform. Services like X-Box LIVE and PSN won't be affected at all (then again, they're not as popular as PC gaming is in Korea).