South Korea Blocks Youngsters from Playing During the Night

A new so called Shutdown Law has gone into effect in South Korea which requires operators of online games to block access for those under the age of 16 for a six hour block late at night.

Both Sony’s PlayStation Network and Microsoft’s Xbox Live are under the influence of the new regulations, meaning that young gamers can no longer register to get accounts and are blocked from logging in between midnight and 6 AM.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family has said that the new regulation was specifically designed to lessen the risk of gaming addiction.

Online gaming is big business in both South Korea and the rest of South East Asia and a number of well known companies, like Nexon and NCsoft, have created a trade association which has already criticized the Shutdown Law and has launched a lawsuit to have it overturned.

Of course, kids can still get around the restrictions by simply using their parents account to do their gaming, which means that parental supervision is still the best way of limiting play time for those who abuse it.