A pair of policies were announced yesterday that will attempt to block underaged access to online computer games after midnight in light of the rising problem of video game addiction among youth.
In what’s being touted as the "nighttime shutdown," the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism hopes the new measures they have implemented will help eradicate video game addiction among teenagers.
According to the ministry, underaged users will be forced out of gaming sessions when online access automatically shuts down as soon as the clock strikes midnight.
. . .
Gamers will be given three options for the six hour black-out period --midnight-6 a.m.,1-7 a.m., and 2-8 a.m.
The "slowdown" scheme is currently being tested out on a total of four role playing games, including the hugely popular "Dungeon & Fighter," and "Dragon Nest," and will be extended to 19 role playing games.
The 19 RPG titles represent approximately 79 percent of the domestic online game market.
And an editorial from the latter:
Korea’s game industry is so competitive, online game exports earn 50 times that of the film sector. The good always comes with the bad, however. Korea has high percentage of online game addicts. Teenagers usually return home late from attending academic institutes and can easily meet up with a game partner at night. As a result, many of them stay in front of their PCs late into the night. Despite the government’s proposed measures to limit their access late at night, addicts could take advantage of their parents’ social security numbers to gain access. Parent attention and care alone are not enough to prevent their addiction to games. Thorough government measures that can effectively prevent game addiction are urgently needed.
Some people are saying this isn't compatible with a free country, and others are asking where the parents that kids are spending so much time with computer games. I can see the validity in both statements: to the former, the government's attempts at a strong grip on that fast, cheap, ubiquitous internet have been well-documented; to the latter, this is a country where kids spend a lot of time out of the house, and where a hands-off approach with young people contradicts the control parents exercise later. I would like to point out, though, that this won't be an issue for many. The rigors of Korean education mean when high school students are awake past midnight, it's usually to pass the time in cram schools or to study on their own at home or in dorms. Elementary and middle school students at my former hagwon were routinely kept past midnight, and there have been measures over the past few years to impose a curfew on these cram schools.
The use and overuse of online games in Korea is commmensurate with the ubiquity of fast, cheap internet. The image of internet addiction, of a guy sitting in a smoky PC room or alone in a dark apartment, isn't really fair to the social function computer games play for many of the country's young people. I made that point in a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette piece last month:
When students play computer games all day on a Sunday, it's not quite the same as vegging out in front of the TV as we're used to it. First of all, most kids play with their friends, whether in person or online, so there's an element of social interaction. Second, most people don't play at home, so kids at least get out of the house (and into a smoky PC bang, but still).
There are a lot of reasons for the interest in gaming, but a big one is that it fits a lifestyle dictated by work and, for students and business people, sedentary activity. Moreover, Koreans enjoy technology and computers; playing games is still doing something, and something with some secondary practical applications. You won't find the longest-working people in the OECD doing a lot of nothing.
That so many children are considered "vulnerable" to internet addiction owes to so many children having access to the internet and, thanks to those limitations on their social calendars, not much else.
I'm not a tech-blogger, and I'm certainly not an authority on internet culture in South Korea, but the way I see it I don't believe this will be treated as alarming by many. The demands of the Korean education system will keep most minors in line, and this measure aimed at a selection of online games will attempt to get at the young people who, for whatever reason, don't have the same pressures. I'll be vague by writing that education is still highly-valued in South Korea, and I don't think many will argue with a plan to focus students on school, even at the expense of what some might consider the "freedom" to game around the clock.
17 comments:
"Parent attention and care alone are not enough to prevent their addiction to games."
BS!
9pm curfew
10pm bedtime
1 computer in the house
That computer in the livingroom used with parental supervision
I largely blame the parents on this one.
>You won't find the longest-working people in the OECD doing a lot of nothing.
I don't understand the logic behind this comment. Yes, they do work amazingly long hours, and yet their productivity does not reflect this, e.g., their GDP does not rank among the world's top ten. As most people who have spent time in a Korean office environment report (or seen a Bacchus ad on TV), it's not unusual to be wretchedly hung-over or still tipsy when one arrives at work. It's also permissible to nap at one's desk. In an environment with a strict hierarchy and little personal agency, I doubt there is much incentive for going above and beyond, or taking on extra work.
I would argue that instead of "a lifestyle dictated by work", what we have is actually "a lifestyle dictated by the appearance of work."
That's why I make the distinction between "hardest working" (as used by Forbes and others) and "longest working." Koreans work long hours, but productivity remains low. I think productivity is a loaded word and can be a bit ethnocentric, as I mentioned in that 2008 post and with the quotation from the book Confucius Lives Next Door. Yep, I know Korean employees are notorious for putting in a lot of face time and for coming to work hungover, and I know plenty of teachers complain about being "busy" but take naps during their marathon sessions at school. But in their minds they're still "working," and still "active" in their own way, and I consider the computer game fascination as part of that.
But I don't consider playing computer games "doing nothing," though I recognize that it can distract from other things that might be more important. As a form of relaxation I consider it more, um, "something" than simply vegging out in front of the TV as many American kids do after school. That was sort of my point. Overdoing it with computer games isn't healthy, but overdoing it with anything isn't.
Wait, there are Korean kids that have time for videogames? Double up the homework! Require more testing! That'll show 'em...
Regarding the concept of a curfew for minors, it's done all the time in the US, usually to stop any number of crimes. At least these guys aren't, I don't know, taking care of virtual babies when they should be taking care of their real ones...
The whole TV in the US (and elsewhere, I know, lest I be narrow-minded) bothers me every bit as much as TV here. And doing 'nothing' can be great. When else do you reflect on your day but when you can have moments of pause in your day? When did playing outside get so bad? (And despite its metropolitan nature there are plenty of greenbelts here and there in Seoul, and more in other Korean cities). The NYT recently did a piece discussing how OCTs are now seeing children who can't develop proper handwriting skills and are connecting it to lack of outdoor play time which actually develops fine motor control through repetition. I wonder what the rate of early-onset carpal tunnel is among Korean teens and young adults.
I'm also amused that the games will have choices about their blackout period. 2-8pm? Seems like a popular choice since that would be after most hagwon hours and homework, and before school when they might sneak in their 4-5 hours of sleep. But it won't touch the time spent playing games earlier in the day, if they've got an hour or two between hagwon sessions. It's just like any other addiction in that you can't help someone who doesn't want to stop. (Comments saying gaming isn't a real addiction like smkoing crack are unnecessary hyperbole. We all know that, and there are simply some core elements to habitual behaviors. I don't think anyone here is actually comparing Starcraft to shooting heroin under a bridge.)
Let's not forget that American kids and adults well into their mid thirties also spend a lot of time on play stations, nintendos, and x-boxes. Some parents also see the benefit of having kids play such games because the games can be a good and interesting way to teach problem solving skills. (As a person who really sucks at video games and algebra, I can attest to how that set of problem solving skills could have helped me when I was younger, not that video games are good way to teach algebra, but they can exercise abstract thinking)
With video games and computer games, I can see both sides of the argument and think that it's a case of moderation by the parents. Many things can be good in moderation. Playing them can be a good critical thinking learning tool, but at the same time, it shouldn't replace going outside every now and then to interact with other children or to just be active and healthy. Even if online gaming has social interaction, it still doesn't quite replace that face to face interaction that kids need to learn how to behave in public situations.
The longest workers argument is an interesting one. I know that in my previous office, I didn't take breaks, came in 15-20 minutes early, would take a 30-45 minute lunch, finished by 6 or 7 pm and left the office at that time. Yet, my co-workers came in on time or 15 minutes late, took numerous naps, coffee breaks, smoke breaks, chit-chat breaks and hour-and-a-half lunches, and would leave around 9pm. They complained to each other that I didn't work hard enough just because I left early. It's an interesting cultural difference and I would try to explain that this was the way I was use to working in the US, but they couldn't grasp the concept. In the end, I would spend an hour on Facebook at the end of the day so I could leave at 8 or later, and the complaints stopped.
I have an example of how the long working hours may actually stifle the progress of some students.
My school opened night classes where the students take 3-4 classes after the last 8th hour after school class. Now I can only speak from my observations on the English program, but there are a few apparent major flaws.
1. Korean night class English teachers may or may not be certified teacher.
2. This ties to major flaw number one - the school has the night class Korean English teachers teach a different text book than the text book that is taught by their regular teachers during the day.
3. The students are tired at night and can't focus, or they are wide awake and act crazy.
4. The students who take the night classes have a hard time staying awake during the day class when their actual teacher is teaching the text book that they need to study in order to pass the test.
I guess one thing that is good about this system is the fact that
the school system trains students pretty well how to work for Korean companies in the future (That is if the stereo types or reports by foreigners working in Korea are correct about how Koreans work in offices.
Now a question for the forum:
Does anybody know anything about management systems that Korean firms use? As a contrast to Japan where google searches for Japanese management reveal several articles on "Kaizen," or W. Edwards Deming's 14 points, I wonder if Korean companies use such philosophies, or if they use a combination of "빠리 빠리, and Confucianism.
Gotta agree with fattycat: the immediate blame lies solely on the parents for this one.
Seems funny the government is focusing on this...people need to find a way to have fun and relax. I sometimes think that the only way to do relax/have fun in a wilder sense in Korea is to a) drink b) rent a love motel with a willing partner or c) smoke. Obviously children shouldn't be able to do all of these (although if you look at trends I'm sure people would see a marked increase in all of the above).
In my 6 + years here, there is one thing I keep coming back to and it's this: parents, society and government need to learn that
a) Schools and Teachers are there to educate children and educate them only. They are not glorified babysitters, 24-7 guidance counsellors, make-shift parents or robots. Parents should not be allowed to have so much influence on dictating educational policy/having such a strong influence on what is being done at schools. Granted there are some parents who know what their children should be doing, but the rest are not educators and lack the training/insight and education to realize how society should educate it's youth. You wouldn't ask a mechanic to set tax policy right? Or ask a pilot to perform dentistry?
b) working/studying 10 hour days 6 days a week consistently is not living and it does not make people happy. People need to work yes but one should not confuse quality with quantity (like Emma said). There are serious social problems to pay when doing this constantly.
c) not everyone can be a doctor, lawyer or pilot. It sucks that not every boy can make his family proud here but whatever...a person should do a job they enjoy and like: not what mommy or daddy expect of them. Even if it were possible, you need people to do middle and lower class jobs for this system to work. The result of a failure to accept this is this phenomenon of pressure in over-schooling and competing with each other (leading to the 10 hour, 6 day a week work/school lifestyle). Where does Korea's suicide rate rank again?
End rant ^^
This is sad and embarrassing. These kids spend 14 hours a day inside a classroom. Let them unwind a bit. Let them be kids.
Typical knee-jerk, sledgehammer-for-a-nail solution. People get addicted to gambling? Ban gambling. Infant dies after parents play WoW for 72 straight hours, ban online gaming. There are far more people addicted to cigarettes in this country, smoking is far more destructive to one's health and, unlike the previous examples, affect innocent bystanders. So why don't they ban tobacco too?
Young boys get addicted to computer games, then grow out of them when they realize they have to meet girls and work. Let them sort it out themselves. Instigating these ridiculous policies just make Koreans look like a bunch babies.
Any system I ever devised in the class room, Korean kids found a way to route around it to be monsters. They'll do the same with this government reg.
Yeah, this particular effort by the government will be about as effective as legislating the hagwons to close by 10pm. Lots of sound and fury, then, no enforcement, no compliance, soon forgotten. Life goes on.
Brian, your arguments in favour of gaming are weak. I spent hundreds of hours in PC Bahngs in Korea, and was glad to leave them far behind. It is an unhealthy environment. The gaming industry create emotionally stunted dwarves, in Korea and abroad.
Overdoing anything is bad. I don't see gaming as a hobby as any better or worse than anything else, provided it's done in moderation. Yeah, there's all kinds of bad consequences you might tie to gaming. Kids become sedentary and don't get outside. Young people can become "emotionally stunted dwarfs," as you put it, Bob. But again, as I said in my post and have implied elsewhere, this is in line with features of Korean culture as a whole, not something unique to gaming. Kids are sedentary and don't go outside because that's what they're used to sitting in school and hagwon all day. Kids can become "emotionally stunted dwarfs," to put it indelicately, because they spend all their time memorizing information in their books instead of dating, socializing, or getting jobs prior to college.
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