It’s widely known that South Korea has a massive population of hardcore video gamers. But it still came as a shock to the country back in March, when an infant starved to death because her parents were too busy playing internet games to take care of her. This incident caused the government to rethink video game addiction and its effect on society, and as a result they have implemented a curfew on internet gaming from midnight through 8AM for all school aged children.
The government has already asked game providers to use citizen’s national identity numbers as a way to monitor users who are children that are playing after hours. At the same time, this will enable parents to see if their own IDs are being used by children trying to get away with playing after hours, by using their parent’s ID numbers.
“The policy provides a way for parents to supervise their children”s game playing,” said Lee Young-ah, an official at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
But it’s not just children that are going to be affected by the ministry’s new involvement, the government is also asking video game companies to figure out a way to curb the amount of hours that adults are playing.
(Via DNA India)
