Ancillary #1

For all passionate gamers in the world enjoying various types of games, one of the contexts that matters the most is the video and online game regulations by the government. Most countries follow the ESRB rating system, which is to provide information about what is in a game for the consumers so that consumers can make informed choices. However, certain countries, in addition to the ESRB rating system, follow government-led game-related regulations that could be seen as different in national and international perspectives.

Two of the famous countries for government-led game regulations, China and South Korea, seemingly have similar structures of the regulation. Both countries, by law, focus on limiting adolescents’ gaming hours. For South Korea, the ‘Forced Shutdown System’ existed starting from November 20th, 2011, announcing that “Internet game providers shall not provide Internet games to adolescents under the age of 16 from 0 a.m. to 6 a.m.” by the law. The law existed until January 1st, 2022, and reformed itself to another law of ‘Game Time Selection System, also known as the ‘Selective Shutdown System’. The changed form allowed the adolescents to allow activate the shutdown system at the time adolescents want, with the permission of the parents. China, on the other hand, applied stricter legislation that “teenagers can only play games between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. on weekends and holidays”, announced by the National Newspaper Publishing Bureau (NPPA), which is in charge of online game deliberation in China, on August 30th, 2021.

In a local viewpoint, while teenagers obviously reacted negatively to these legislations, many of the adults, mostly the parents, welcomed the game-time limiting system, as parents were concerned about internet games, which is described as “an opium of the soul,” by the media. However, there also exists voices of criticism from both national and international perspectives. Adolescents who paid money to purchase games properly own the games they purchased as property. Thus, the ‘Shutdown system’, could be seen as a system that violates the right to freely control the property of adolescents under the age of 19. Moreover, these types of criticisms are also linked to the issue of youth human rights. Although adolescents are individuals to be protected, this kind of overprotection or compulsory measure is a violation of youth human rights and a violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Therefore, the system of regulating internet game time of the youth could be seen as a violation and regulation of the right to freedom.