Even if South Korea touts itself as the computer games capital of the world, the industry is currently facing many changes, of course for the "benefit" of the users being mostly students. The government's move is in connection to the shocking cases involving game addiction - including deaths by exhaustion, murder and child neglect.
It should be known the cases are getting worse like in February, a 22-year-old was arrested in Gyeonggi Province on charges of killing his mother due to a quarrel over his long gaming hours. Just weeks later, a couple was arrested in Suwon after it was found that they had left their 3-month-old daughter to starve to death last year while they spent most of their time in a "PC bang," or computer gaming lounge.
And during the Lunar New Year holiday, a 33-year-old man collapsed in a PC bang in Seoul and died in a hospital hours later. He had been playing games at the shop for five days in a row.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is planning to announce a set of controls on Monday to combat addiction to online games and to deter people from playing excessively according to the news.
The measures are likely to be "fatigue systems," which will force disadvantages in game play when gamers exceed the advised limit for playing time. Another measure is automatic shutdown, which prevent youngsters from playing games during certain hours of the day when requested by parents, industry sources said. "The question is, how long will the government set as the limit on playing time - three consecutive hours, or more, or less? And the decision on the methods for restricting access to underage users is also an important issue."
No matter what will happen, the government needs to do something to solve this issue. I didn't know that computer games could be a threat to one's life.
Full Story:
Game-Obsessed Korea Attempts to Save Itself
by Kim Tong-hyung
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