A bill to be submitted to parliament as early as this month will require South Korean online game companies to cut off services at midnight for users registered as younger than 16, the culture and family ministries said.
"The thing about online games is, once you are in it, it is extremely hard to get out of it, especially if you are a young kid," Jo Rin, a ministry official in charge of the law, told AFP.
"A lot of kids play games all night long and have trouble studying at school and going about their normal lives during daytime. We believe the law is necessary to ensure their health and a right to sleep."
The online services would resume at six the following morning, he said, adding there would be a year-long waiting period until the law takes effect so that companies can prepare for it.
The government is also considering requiring companies to limit young users' access to online games to a maximum number of hours a week or a day if parents request this, said Jo.
South Korea is one of the world's most wired societies, but there have been sporadic reports of deaths related to Internet game addiction.
Last month a 15-year-old South Korean boy committed suicide after killing his mother for scolding him over playing computer games too much.
In February a 32-year-old man died after reportedly playing for five days with few breaks.
A month later police arrested a couple accused of leaving their baby daughter to starve to death while they raised a "virtual" child on the Internet. The baby had long been malnourished, an autopsy showed.
The government, which estimates that South Korea has about two million web addicts, is already launching one campaign to combat the affliction.
From next year, it will offer free software to people at risk, to limit the time they spend on the web.
-AFP/ac
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Upon seeing this article, I was shocked!
A 15 year-old killed his mother just because his mother scolded him for over playing computer games too much? A 32 years-old man died because he played for 5 days with too little beaks? And couple leaving their daughter to starve to death while they raise a “virtual” child in the internet?
I admit sometimes I did played computer games till about 2-3am in the morning and I was addicted to computers games too. I feel that one day without computer games make my day incomplete. Computer games are like food, oxygen and I cannot live without them.
As we now live in the 21st century, where technology advance beyond imagination, computer games’ graphics now are more vivid and they have very interesting story lines for the gamers. Quoted in the article, "The thing about online games is, once you are in it, it is extremely hard to get out of it, especially if you are a young kid." I find this very true as I experienced it before, when I do not play computer games, I feel sick and uneasy. In the past, once I reached home from school, I will immediately switch on my computer and start playing for at least 2 hours. After having my dinner I will continue playing till midnight, until my mum demand me to go to sleep, then I will go to sleep reluctantly, with my mind still wondering in the virtual world.
Computer games are like drugs, once you started it; it is hard for you to get out of it, and you will go crazy over it. But this does not mean that you cannot say NO to the “drug”, have these two simple things and you are on your way to overcoming the addiction:
Firstly, you need self-control. With self-control, you can limit yourself to a certain number of hours of computer games each day, and will not keep extending your hours of playing computer games.
Secondly, you can have a timetable. Arrange your timetable with doing the top priorities first and put and the least important matter to the last. For example doing homework first and playing computer games before you go to sleep. Limit your timeslots for playing games, and have ample time for sleep.
Using law to limit youngsters from playing computer games after midnight is not the solution for the problem. Children below 16 can register themselves as a 20+ year-old adult and they still can continue playing computer games.
One possible solution is that parents need to educate their children from young that they can only have certain hours of computer games, and too much will only harm the player. Schools can also educate the children about the pros and cons about computer games to make the children realize that computer games can be a distress tool, but over using it can be a drug that will eventually lead to a “slow death”.
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