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.

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Comments

Re: Korea to Impose Gaming Black-Out Periods

Submitted by sharpshooterbabe on Sat, 04/17/2010 - 11:16.

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 - 02:19.

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 - 05:33.

Direct International Action Films??

Thats a crazy reward!

Re: Korea to Impose Gaming Black-Out Periods

Submitted by Aliasalpha on Tue, 04/13/2010 - 00:07.

Oops, double post and no delete button

Re: Korea to Impose Gaming Black-Out Periods

Submitted by Aliasalpha on Tue, 04/13/2010 - 00:06.

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 - 14:35.

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 Mon, 04/12/2010 - 23:17.

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 - 13:19.

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 - 11:26.

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 - 12:34.

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 - 10:26.

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

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Andrew Eisen: Hey, that's exactly the point of our latest poll! Which I just noticed I somehow failed to post yesterday. I better fix that.06/19/2013 - 11:34am

PHX Corp: http://kotaku.com/microsofts-muddled-messaging-shown-off-on-national-te-514280891 Microsoft's Muddled Messaging, Displayed On National Television06/19/2013 - 9:57am

Imautobot: Maybe there really is something to be said about selling a game at a fair price.06/19/2013 - 8:35am

MechaTama31: Imautobot: I dunno. Ask my hundreds-strong Steam library, which I have played maybe 10-20% of. Those sales are just too good to pass up... >.>06/19/2013 - 7:38am

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Zen: http://www.airforcetimes.com/article/20130614/OFFDUTY02/306140030/New-Xbox-sin-against-all-service-members-06/18/2013 - 7:33pm

Zen: Been out for a few days, but has anyone brought up the possible ban on Xbox One on military bases because of security concerns that it could be a listening device by Commanders?06/18/2013 - 7:33pm

Andrew Eisen: Sleaker - Fixed.06/18/2013 - 6:34pm

MechaTama31: CMiner: Another issue is that every camera/webcam combination is going to be pretty different, in terms of the software/hardware exploits available. A homogenous hardware/software combo like a console, in millions of homes, will be a much juicier target.06/18/2013 - 6:31pm

Sleaker: Vox pay what you want link is busted.06/18/2013 - 6:27pm

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NyuRena: You nailed it James! Yikes..06/18/2013 - 1:56pm

james_fudge: With MS willing to share with the government, an always listening device should give everyone pause.06/18/2013 - 1:37pm

james_fudge: you can't turn off the Microphone on the Kinect and it has to be plugged in. It's not rocket science.06/18/2013 - 1:35pm

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