South Korea's Ministry of Education, Science and Technology is reportedly reviewing a policy that would ban minors' accounts if they played online games for more than two hours consecutively, or a total of three hours in a day.
While there is already a shutdown law in place preventing children aged under 18 years old from playing online games during a late-night six-hour block, MEST's rationale for the policy is that game addiction comes from how long kids play games, not when they play them.
Critics are arguing that this new policy, along with the existing shutdown law and the recently implemented selective shutdown law, constitutes a "triple regulation" of the game industry in Korea -- and that MEST's theories on game addiction haven't been medically proven.
"If the game industry is really a troublemaker, then the related government [groups] should discuss it and provide guidelines to instruct us," said an unnamed game industry representative, according to a report from Korean industry news site This Is Game.
The official added, "Making similar policies from three different ministries does not make any sense at all. The two shutdown systems of the [Ministry of Gender Equality and Family] and the [Ministry of Culture Sports and Tourism] should be repealed if MEST's regulation is reasonable."
That wouldn't solve the problem. Instead, they should push minors to live on a better diet, breathe properly and are physically active enough to remain healthy. The number of hours spent at gaming isn't the problem.
Why would you want to prevent people from enjoying an activity if it doesn't go against their health? Or if their ''addiction to video games'' prevents minors from doing other tasks, it's up to the parents and education. Still, you can't escape life. And if we cut them their hours, how can they learn self-control? Or maybe they should instead focus on changing how they educate people, make school more entertaining and make homeworks more interesting.
When I see things like that ''We would be ready to prevent minors from playing more than 3 hours consecutively'' I find it really sad. Personally, most of the memorable moments I had in my life happened while I was playing video games. Do you know why? Because video games are an intense package of small experiences. Basically it means that you can experience more things by playing a video game than you would normally by not doing it.
Basically, any video game addict is addicted to life; to experience experiences. It would be pretty stupid to limit minors from playing video games.
I'd additionally like to pick the low hanging fruit here and say there are way worse ways to spend time than gaming. But, preaching to choir, etc. etc.
I agree with some points but let's be honest: "The number of hours spent at gaming isn't the problem." - This is a problem, there is no reason to get super defensive as a industry, moderation is always healthy.
RE: "That wouldn't solve the problem. Instead, they should push minors to live on a better diet, breathe properly and are physically active enough to remain healthy. The number of hours spent at gaming isn't the problem."
--
I agree 100% that it wont solve the problem. We need to understand State and Society in more holistic sense. I suspect excessive gaming, diet, sedentary lifestyles in kids are linked. And I don't mean that in the obvious way at all. I think all of these things, (gaming included) are symptoms of larger societal problems.
We are (society not just parents) raising (programming) too many grasshoppers and not enough ants.
I don't believe this is purely a parental problem. This is a cultural problem. If S. Korea is recognizing this as a cultural problem, then they certainly need to do more than just issue gaming limits.
Some day will some game developers look at some 23 year old working at McDonalds and think "You should've spent less time playing the games I designed to make it difficult for people to tear themselves away from and more time studying!"
It's a difficult thing no doubt. We all want the game industry to grow and grow and grow... but we want to stick our heads in the sands when it comes to any problems and avoid responsibility. So it is with many things. Culturally we pay a price for the belief system that we are islands unto ourselves.
The hours spent are never the problem. If you want to get better at something, the only way is to train hard and spend as much time as possible. Any martial master can tell you, the more time you spend, the better it is. And it's the same for everything else. Where moderation is needed is to preserve the body. You don't want to train excessively to the point you would hurt your body. That has to do with the type of training, not the time spent. Moderation has to do with the intensity that your body can take or not and video games are one of the least exhausting practices in the world. That makes video games one of them most powerful tool for self development or educate people.
People can spend infinite hours if they like, as long as they took the time to sleep, eat, take care of their kids, did their tasks, etc. There is nothing wrong with someone who spend countless hours at reading, playing or working as long as it makes that person happy.
@Christian - The thing here is games are fundamentally a leisure activity, people who downright invest their whole life playing games more than often find themselves in bad positions.
I love games but this notion that games are almost "enlightenment" like activities… Mmm I find that rather naive; I can believe you can achieve wisdom and a meaningful life satisfaction as a Chess Scholar or as a Social/Game theorist like R. Callois, however, with the current gaming landscape with games like WoW and its arguable a destructive/addictive design structure, really? Would you consider spending 10 hours a day in WoW a constructive-healthy way to spend your life?
About the Korean Law, I know little about the Korean Social/Government paradigm to make a judgment, I would agree, however, this would be a counterproductive law in Western Societies. I would like the industry to answer these worries by legitimizing Gaming as a healthy activity, with games that promote learning, social interaction and fun without the need of carrot on the stick (“life fillers”) placebos.
"There is nothing wrong with someone who spend countless hours at reading, playing or working as long as it makes that person happy. "
You're mixing behaviors in a way that is not comparable.
I ask you this. How many happy people do you know who spend "countless" hours engaging in frivolous activities? Generally, I don't think games make people happy in and of themselves. If they did... boy.. that would actually be something bordering on the divine. The pharmaceutial industry is still looking for their soma.
Enlightenment, no, but all I'm saying is that once we reach a very high level in something, at some point we start to see things from a unified point of view for that simple reason that everything was built on the same life principle. So the more you advance, the more everything else starts to look alike. And because we can't have injuries that would stop our practice, video games are one of the fastest ways to get in that place of understanding.
I wrote an article about that recently and you can find it here:
What I meant is that we all have our priorities and those should be respected. I wasn't implying that games make us happy. I was implying that if your current life priority is to play video games for whatever the reason, than that's what you should do if it's not going against your well being.
To spend countless hours at playing video games is not indicative of a bad or abusive behavior if the person has 10 hours of free time.
If kids have 10 hours of free time, then they have the right to play for 10 consecutive hours. It wouldn't be better or worst if they would instead play cards for 2 hours, study engineering for 2 others, watch TV for 4 and play video games for 2.
Most people don't read so much that they drop dead from lack of eating and sleeping, which, correct me if I am wrong, was something that was happening sometimes in South Korea as pertains to games?
Are you saying that countless hours of gaming caused that? Or was it the negligence of their own body? Those people made a terrible mistake or were suicidal. Whatever we do, we can't neglect our body.
No, I am not saying that. It's not gaming that is causing it, it's the people who are refusing to stop playing gaming to take care of themselves.
I don't really care for this law, but I think people are taking it as an attack on gaming and while the South Korean government may feel that way, I don't.
Clearly, there are some problems with this issue in that country. Parents aren't stepping up and people are dying. I think the measure is drastic, but it looks like a drastic measure might be needed.
Although this is a broad sword and a scalpel might work better.
Perhaps a law forcing the businesses to limit play sessions?
Of course they do, but S.Korea has the longest work hours in the world. Many parents dont see their kids for more than a couple of hours a week . Kids are raised by the schools and by their computers.
Wow, Harlan, that sounds just like the way my parents were, when I was a kid.
Americans also work long hours, but we don't have these sort of laws. Then again, the culture in America is vastly different from S. Korean culture, hence such laws are acceptable in S. Korea.
Most games are pure entertainment. That's kind of bad. There's an opportunity cost to playing them... it can steal away the time from achieving excellence. Generally speaking, playing frivolous games won't make kids better adults. It may even be a vice. It's akin to junk food. Tastes great but not healthy especially in excess. The crux is, it's hard to get kids who lack the discipline and self control of (most? lol) adults to moderate themselves when it comes to fun or yummy things.
I suspect I'm not alone here, but I wasn't allowed a TV in my room until I was 14. Until that age we we watched TV as a family. Parents have accepted a lot of things as "normal" (and therefore ok) because of the type of normality that is perpetuated on TV. Today 10 year olds have tv's, dvd players, computers, console games and all sorts of things in their bedrooms. This is just my opinion, but I don't think majority of parents are aware that this aspect of our evolving culture is a negative one. Most parents place way too much trust in schools (some are effectively forced to due to work) to provide a well rounded education... but public schools cannot do this... they cannot raise kids. And yet, for many working parents, various teachers collectively see their children more than they do.
I think parents are heavily influenced by the Jones' they see on TV. Even the parents who put a lot of thought into raising their children, can only do so much when all of their child's friends are (dare I say) corrupted.
Regulation is not the answer, but educational awareness is.
"It takes all kinds of people to turn the world." For me that is a profound statement. That is why I feel there is a responsibility (often shirked) by those with a better education, with greater means, and more free time to help educate others who are doing other necessary unskilled work in the world but lack the wherewithal to recognize certain virtues let alone how to instill them in their children.
can you bank your hours? if they don't play for a few days can they play 9 hrs in a day?
this most definitely falls under "parental choice" and not under federal law. i know people who let their kids play way too much online, hours upon hours, but it's their choice to let them play away their days. 30 minutes of homework and then 5 hours on MW3 with no time outside playing around with other kids... ahhh youth is wasted on the young.
Do you have kids? How often do your kids choose something where you "chose" otherwise? What did you do when you found out they disobeyed your instructions?
I'll go out on a limb here and say I don't think you have any kids. Good luck dealing with that someday. There are methods to raising children that involves helping them learn and appreciate the value of virtues. It's not about "yes" and "no" decisions (choices) on the parents' part. A lot of parents haven't learned these methods and so aren't likely to know how to pass them on.
I don't believe in government regulation for such things, but I do believe in advocacy and trying to change cultures and belief systems. But the "parental choice" notion is lazy thinking in my opinion and completely out of touch. It also suggests selfishness and a lack of good regard for creating a better tomorrow for the world's children.
Where is the line drawn between nanny state and whatever name you wish to call the opposite thereof? (hint: there's no such thing as a free society)
By all accounts people love lawfullness (which necessitates there being laws to begin with). So we're talking about laws? So how would you draw the line between laws you like and laws you dislike? (the line between nanny and non nanny)
Is it the cliche "laws that prevent people from hurting other people?" Well, that is a giant can of worms isn't it? You probably want to insert the word "directly" or "intentionally" in front of "hurting other people." Still a giant can of worms.
Everybody likes to think it's the other guy who's woefully indoctrinated. Terms like "nanny state" reflect a political bias and not an objective thought.
Actually, in the US we should consider looking at limiting cell phone use, Facebook time and TV viewing hours in addition to game playing time, for both children and adults. lol I can't say that I know anybody who sufficiently constrains themselves to prevent themselves from coming to harm. Whether it's missed meals and missed sleep leading to decreased performance at school or work, or botched relationships because their priority was a bit high on pursuing leisure activities. As we've become a networked society, whether through Facebook, texting or in-game chat, it seems most people have become obsessed with the fear of being left out, and therefore spend an inordinate amount of time "networking."
Why would you want to prevent people from enjoying an activity if it doesn't go against their health? Or if their ''addiction to video games'' prevents minors from doing other tasks, it's up to the parents and education. Still, you can't escape life. And if we cut them their hours, how can they learn self-control? Or maybe they should instead focus on changing how they educate people, make school more entertaining and make homeworks more interesting.
When I see things like that ''We would be ready to prevent minors from playing more than 3 hours consecutively'' I find it really sad. Personally, most of the memorable moments I had in my life happened while I was playing video games. Do you know why? Because video games are an intense package of small experiences. Basically it means that you can experience more things by playing a video game than you would normally by not doing it.
Basically, any video game addict is addicted to life; to experience experiences. It would be pretty stupid to limit minors from playing video games.
RE: "That wouldn't solve the problem. Instead, they should push minors to live on a better diet, breathe properly and are physically active enough to remain healthy. The number of hours spent at gaming isn't the problem."
--
I agree 100% that it wont solve the problem. We need to understand State and Society in more holistic sense. I suspect excessive gaming, diet, sedentary lifestyles in kids are linked. And I don't mean that in the obvious way at all. I think all of these things, (gaming included) are symptoms of larger societal problems.
We are (society not just parents) raising (programming) too many grasshoppers and not enough ants.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ant_and_the_Grasshopper
I don't believe this is purely a parental problem. This is a cultural problem. If S. Korea is recognizing this as a cultural problem, then they certainly need to do more than just issue gaming limits.
Some day will some game developers look at some 23 year old working at McDonalds and think "You should've spent less time playing the games I designed to make it difficult for people to tear themselves away from and more time studying!"
It's a difficult thing no doubt. We all want the game industry to grow and grow and grow... but we want to stick our heads in the sands when it comes to any problems and avoid responsibility. So it is with many things. Culturally we pay a price for the belief system that we are islands unto ourselves.
The hours spent are never the problem. If you want to get better at something, the only way is to train hard and spend as much time as possible. Any martial master can tell you, the more time you spend, the better it is. And it's the same for everything else. Where moderation is needed is to preserve the body. You don't want to train excessively to the point you would hurt your body. That has to do with the type of training, not the time spent. Moderation has to do with the intensity that your body can take or not and video games are one of the least exhausting practices in the world. That makes video games one of them most powerful tool for self development or educate people.
People can spend infinite hours if they like, as long as they took the time to sleep, eat, take care of their kids, did their tasks, etc. There is nothing wrong with someone who spend countless hours at reading, playing or working as long as it makes that person happy.
I love games but this notion that games are almost "enlightenment" like activities… Mmm I find that rather naive; I can believe you can achieve wisdom and a meaningful life satisfaction as a Chess Scholar or as a Social/Game theorist like R. Callois, however, with the current gaming landscape with games like WoW and its arguable a destructive/addictive design structure, really? Would you consider spending 10 hours a day in WoW a constructive-healthy way to spend your life?
About the Korean Law, I know little about the Korean Social/Government paradigm to make a judgment, I would agree, however, this would be a counterproductive law in Western Societies. I would like the industry to answer these worries by legitimizing Gaming as a healthy activity, with games that promote learning, social interaction and fun without the need of carrot on the stick (“life fillers”) placebos.
You're mixing behaviors in a way that is not comparable.
I ask you this. How many happy people do you know who spend "countless" hours engaging in frivolous activities? Generally, I don't think games make people happy in and of themselves. If they did... boy.. that would actually be something bordering on the divine. The pharmaceutial industry is still looking for their soma.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World
Enlightenment, no, but all I'm saying is that once we reach a very high level in something, at some point we start to see things from a unified point of view for that simple reason that everything was built on the same life principle. So the more you advance, the more everything else starts to look alike. And because we can't have injuries that would stop our practice, video games are one of the fastest ways to get in that place of understanding.
I wrote an article about that recently and you can find it here:
http://videogamearchives.wikia.com/wiki/How_to_unleash_your_full_pote ntial#The_m
indgame_.28master_of_puppets.29
@ Michael Joseph
What I meant is that we all have our priorities and those should be respected. I wasn't implying that games make us happy. I was implying that if your current life priority is to play video games for whatever the reason, than that's what you should do if it's not going against your well being.
To spend countless hours at playing video games is not indicative of a bad or abusive behavior if the person has 10 hours of free time.
If kids have 10 hours of free time, then they have the right to play for 10 consecutive hours. It wouldn't be better or worst if they would instead play cards for 2 hours, study engineering for 2 others, watch TV for 4 and play video games for 2.
Are you saying that countless hours of gaming caused that? Or was it the negligence of their own body? Those people made a terrible mistake or were suicidal. Whatever we do, we can't neglect our body.
I don't really care for this law, but I think people are taking it as an attack on gaming and while the South Korean government may feel that way, I don't.
Clearly, there are some problems with this issue in that country. Parents aren't stepping up and people are dying. I think the measure is drastic, but it looks like a drastic measure might be needed.
Although this is a broad sword and a scalpel might work better.
Perhaps a law forcing the businesses to limit play sessions?
Americans also work long hours, but we don't have these sort of laws. Then again, the culture in America is vastly different from S. Korean culture, hence such laws are acceptable in S. Korea.
I suspect I'm not alone here, but I wasn't allowed a TV in my room until I was 14. Until that age we we watched TV as a family. Parents have accepted a lot of things as "normal" (and therefore ok) because of the type of normality that is perpetuated on TV. Today 10 year olds have tv's, dvd players, computers, console games and all sorts of things in their bedrooms. This is just my opinion, but I don't think majority of parents are aware that this aspect of our evolving culture is a negative one. Most parents place way too much trust in schools (some are effectively forced to due to work) to provide a well rounded education... but public schools cannot do this... they cannot raise kids. And yet, for many working parents, various teachers collectively see their children more than they do.
I think parents are heavily influenced by the Jones' they see on TV. Even the parents who put a lot of thought into raising their children, can only do so much when all of their child's friends are (dare I say) corrupted.
Regulation is not the answer, but educational awareness is.
"It takes all kinds of people to turn the world." For me that is a profound statement. That is why I feel there is a responsibility (often shirked) by those with a better education, with greater means, and more free time to help educate others who are doing other necessary unskilled work in the world but lack the wherewithal to recognize certain virtues let alone how to instill them in their children.
this most definitely falls under "parental choice" and not under federal law. i know people who let their kids play way too much online, hours upon hours, but it's their choice to let them play away their days. 30 minutes of homework and then 5 hours on MW3 with no time outside playing around with other kids... ahhh youth is wasted on the young.
I'll go out on a limb here and say I don't think you have any kids. Good luck dealing with that someday. There are methods to raising children that involves helping them learn and appreciate the value of virtues. It's not about "yes" and "no" decisions (choices) on the parents' part. A lot of parents haven't learned these methods and so aren't likely to know how to pass them on.
I don't believe in government regulation for such things, but I do believe in advocacy and trying to change cultures and belief systems. But the "parental choice" notion is lazy thinking in my opinion and completely out of touch. It also suggests selfishness and a lack of good regard for creating a better tomorrow for the world's children.
By all accounts people love lawfullness (which necessitates there being laws to begin with). So we're talking about laws? So how would you draw the line between laws you like and laws you dislike? (the line between nanny and non nanny)
Is it the cliche "laws that prevent people from hurting other people?" Well, that is a giant can of worms isn't it? You probably want to insert the word "directly" or "intentionally" in front of "hurting other people." Still a giant can of worms.
Everybody likes to think it's the other guy who's woefully indoctrinated. Terms like "nanny state" reflect a political bias and not an objective thought.
I'd fight a law like this in the US, because it doesn't make sense here. But I have no idea what is right for the people of South Korea.