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Law to Ban Students from Beta Tests

February 8th, 2012

BoHwan Park Assembly member and other 10 people of the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology(MEST) have submitted a special bill about prevention and treatment of internet game addiction in minors on February 6.

The bill would wield a powerful regulation to game industry as it would ban minors from playing any beta testing games, also including the Cooling-off system and the post-censorship.

What is more serious about the bill is that it could set the scope of the target to not only PC online games but also console games, smartphone games, or all other online games because it just specified ‘real-time internet games.’ The Cooling-off system also encompasses all the games.

So young students would lose an opportunity to participate his/her anticipating game even though it is rated Everyone if the bill passes the National Assembly.

Any game developers/publishers that do not enforce the Cooling-off system or allows minors play unreleased games would be sentenced to up to three years’ imprisonment or be fined up to about US$27,000.

Since the submitted bill is a special bill that is superior to the Game Law of the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism(MCST) and the Youth Protection Law of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family(MGEF), its power is much stronger than the two Shutdown systems.

“To solve the game addiction of the young we are trying to establish the special law that limits daily playing time and supports consultation and treatment centers for the game addiction, and this would help them grow into healthy human beings,” said Park.

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Triple Regulation Coming True After All

February 7th, 2012

The Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology(MEST) proclaimed that games are one of causes of school violence yesterday, introducing a Cooling-off system and a private fund raised by the game industry.

The Cooling-off system is a system that would automatically kick those who play the game for two hours out of the game and permit them only one more re-login per a day after 10 minutes of rest. So the minors are permitted playing the games for only four hours a day at the most.

The MEST also asked complement in game rating system so as to strengthen the rating for minors, demanding stricter rating standards on the games and more experts in education and youth in the rating committee. In cooperation with the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family(MGEF), it would also quarterly implement investigations over the games in order to reflect the result to later deliberation. In other words, it is even planning a post-censorship.

Here’s more. The MEST is considering a policy similar to the 1% game tax of the MGEF, giving the industry an opportunity to take social responsibility on the game addiction by expanding and legalizing the private fund. “We must protect the minors from the harmful factors such as the game and internet addiction. In an educational point of view, we had not put our effort enough to control the rating, regulation, and harmful causes. Therefore we will improve the system and redouble the preventive, healing actions in order to deter the school violence and harming mental health due to the cruelty of the game and internet,” said the MEST.

The Cooling-off system would not be enforced immediately for now, but the game industry is resisting against the system strongly as the triple regulation-the forcible Shutdown system, the selective Shutdown system, and the Cooling-off system, seems to be coming true.

They are pointing out that the government is proposing the system without giving any reasonable or scientific ground that the games are a root of the school violence.

The most controversial one is the expansion and legalization of the private fund raised by the game industry. The industry views it as the ministry’s plot to impose its short of budget on the industry.

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President Lee Turns His Back on Games

February 6th, 2012

President of S. Korea MyungBak Lee seems to dislike games just like other government.

On February 2, Lee remarked at a principal meeting for eradication of school violence held at Cheongwadae, the Blue House, ”(I am) drawing up a plan to stop the game addiction as a part of anti-school violence measures.”

He also spoke “The games have a polluted side. The game industry needs to try developing such games that feature beautiful stories to purify the young gamers in terms of social contribution, though they might feel unjust,” at a strategic meeting for trade promotion measures and US$1 trillion of post-trade held at Trade Center in Seoul on the 3rd of February.

Moreover, he compared the games with a casino which is a typical speculation industry and supported the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family(MGEF), who led the forcible Shutdown system in order to regulate the game industry along with the other speculation industries such as narcotics, gambling, alcohol, and cigarette. ”Operating a casino might attract lots of tourists but we don’t do so because it also destroys family and our mind. An international regulation could come up if consensus that the games are bad arises.”

» Read more: President Lee Turns His Back on Games

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Don’t Play Games For 2 Hours Or You Will Be Banned

January 25th, 2012

The Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology(MEST) is reportedly reviewing a policy that forcibly bans young students’ online game accounts played either for two hours consecutively or for more than three hours a day.

The MEST believes the game addiction derives from not specific playing period but amount of playing time. Therefore it insists a certain restriction according to each age besides the time restriction-the Shutdown Systems-is needed.

The policy is being developed on the premise that the game addiction caused a suicide accident happened in Daegu last year. So the MEST deeply understands the games are harmful.

Some questioned equity and effectiveness of the policy because its targets are basically the PC online games that can be shut down easily.

“We had not concatenated the game to the education policy because we had considered it as one of leisure activities for the students. But we now believe that the game addiction impacts on the school life significantly,” said an official from the MEST.

But the industry’s view is different. They see this situation as that the government is actually making the games a scapegoat for its failure of the education system. Moreover there are concerns that violation of policy has been made as recent game related laws came not from the charged ministry, the MCST(Minstry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism), but from other ministries, the MEST and the MGEF(Ministry of Gender Equality and Family).

 

The Game Industry “It’s a Triple Regulation.”

According to the game industry, the MEST’s policy is backed up by a theory that playing a game for a long time affects negatively both body and brain. However the basis is just a hypothesis that has not been even approved medically.

Especially, they are criticizing that the policy is a typical bureaucratic administration following the forcible shutdown system of the MGEF and the selective shutdown system of the MCST.

If the third restriction takes effect, total three powerful laws will help helpless parents stopping their born-to-study children from playing the online games over night or for more than two hours a day.

“If the game industry is really a trouble maker, then the related governments should discuss and provide a guideline to instruct us. Making similar policies from three different ministries does not make any sense at all. The two shutdown systems of the MGEF and the MCST should be repealed if the MEST’s regulation is reasonable,” said an industry official.

Meanwhile, the MEST has announced that it will reduce the amount of curriculum for elementary, middle, and high school students by 20% by 2014, scaling down Morality course which is essential for personality education for students.

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Selective Shutdown Takes Effect on Big Companies

January 16th, 2012

The Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism(MCST)’s selective shutdown system will take effect on January 22.

The MCST discussed with the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family(MGEF) who enforces the forcible shutdown system over a range of application of the system and concluded that it only includes big companies who make more than US$26 million a year, excluding whole mobile game firms.

The selective shutdown system is an youth protection law that stops students under age 18 from playing games if demanded by himself/herself or their parents.

Thus the home of online games now has two strong laws that deter the young gamers from playing the online games.

Classifying the targets by annual sales

The criterion is based on the target companies’ annual sales.

Those who make more than US$26M per year now must enforce the selective shutdown as well as self-confirmation and consent of the parents. Those who make somewhere between US$4M and US$26M only need to implement the self-confirmation and consent of the parents while the rest smaller companies do not have a duty to provide such services.

Therefore NCsoft, Nexon, Neowiz Games, Blizzard, and other big companies are required to implement not only the shutdown system made by the MGEF but also the selective shutdown system of the MCST and the self-confirmation works from coming 22nd. Xbox360 and PS3 too cannot evade the law if they gain more than US$26M in Korea.

Such criterion is brought by the consultation between the MCST and the MGEF. The MCST reportedly tried to limit the target within the games played for more than average 2 hours a day, but the MGEF opposed it and insisted to include all kinds of games.

So both ministries drew a conclusion that excludes only petty firms by setting up the criterion of annual turnover.

Industry “Cannot Understand the Criterion”

The game industry stands against the ministries’ action. They raised their voice that it turns the legitimacy of the standard and the purpose of the legislation.

Some doubt that the MGEF influenced in enforcing the law with the standard in order to make its planned bill that collects 1% of game tax from the game industry comes true later.

“Actually, as far as I know, the MGEF strongly opposed the initial standard proposed by the MCST. Consequently they arranged with the current standard as the MGEF wanted. On top of double restrictions, we should see this as a first step toward the game tax,” said a game industry official.

The revised bill of Game Law including the selective shutdown takes effect on January 22, having a grace period of 6 months.

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