South Korea Outlaws Playing Video Games for Minors "After Midnight"

South Korea Outlaws Playing Video Games for Minors "After Midnight"

The South Korean Constitutional Court has made the audacious move of upholding a ban on children 16 years of age and younger playing video games online between the hours of Midnight and 6:00 A.M.

The move is being mocked.

Mocking

Publicly.

Children, teenagers, students and pretty much everyone 15 and younger who plays online video games refuses to obey the law and sees it as a clear infringement on their right to do what they want, when they want.

Apparently the South Korean Constitutional Court agrees that children 15 and under may do whatever they like so long as it doesn't violate they law, but they apparently have the audacity to decide when things that are legal may or may not be done.

So, if I were a 15 year old kid living in South Korea, I'd have the right to play video games. 

However, if I play online video games between midnight and 6:A.M., it's illegal. 

The smell of my grandmothers skin and bones fumigates my nostrils at the audacity of the South Korean Court to uphold such a law.

Ridiculous, absurd, crony.

I'd understand the fears of online play for children 15 and younger in the sense that they have access to communication with individuals far older than themselves and the audience that plays online games during the hours between midnight and 6:00 A.M., which tends to be adults.

However, this is not the reason that Judges are waving their fingers at children and video games.

"'According to local report [ko], judges determined that the bill was constitutional because “considering online gaming's high popularity, addictiveness and [kids'] overindulgence [in it], it is not an overreaction to regulate gaming for kids under age 16.” They specifically singled out online games, adding, “Online games, as they are based on interactivity on the web, are more addictive and easily lead kids to game for long hours.'"

Judges in South Korea went on to label children 15 and under as "immature" in the eyes of society and lacking in impulse control much like a teacher might chastise their students, ruler in hand.

Wagging Finger

"Bloter.com focused on [ko] the court's definition of kids – “Kids, unlike adults, lack the self-control over how much time is spent gaming” – and wrote that this reflects how society views young people, as merely immature. Other local reports voiced concerns [ko] that this ruling could set a dangerous precedent, tipping the scales in favor for the country's controversial addiction law, which treats online games just like other additive substances and activities such as drugs, alcohol and gambling."

I myself doubt the ability of law enforcement in South Korea to enforce said law.

It's virtually impossible.

You'd need a cop in every house.

Gamer plays a "Real-Time Strategy" Computer Game

Because South Korea treats online games like cocaine, this ruling doesn't seem all that out of the ordinary.

In fact, the judges went on to justify the ruling by arguing that the government had to respect a child's "right to sleep".

Many age 15 and under students who attend "Hagwon", or cram schools, at the same time between midnight and 6 A.M. are pressured to study to the point where they lose sleep and get Insomnia, exhaustion, depression, and even suicidal. 

The government has no issue with "children's need for sleep" even with such extreme pressures placed on children to succeed academically but when it comes to video games they're willing to pass a broad-sweeping, virtually unenforceable law which can violate nearly ever South Korean Constitutional Right the South Korean Citizens have.

If the courts can pass laws governing what children are and aren't allowed to do and when whose to say whether they should be able to use their phone in the middle of the night?

What if they're talking with friends late into the night on their phone?

Illegal?

Texting, illegal?

Web surfing, illegal?

Many judges are arguing this law upholds a child's right to sleep but if a child awakes in the midst of a home invasion robbery, or a rape, a murder, or perhaps even witnesses corruption by law enforcement or other government officials at a time late at night when they shouldn't have been awake to begin with...is the testimony inadmissible?

On top of these questions, this law's legal justifications set far-reaching precedents for all sorts of humanitarian and civil rights infringements. It paves the way for corruption by police ad government officials and it creates legal justifications that allow the government to say what you can and can't do in the privacy of your own home and when you can and can't do it.

In America this would never happen, as the boot heels of the American people would be so far up the ass of such a lawmaker that they'd be shitting blood on the bayonet of Capitalism for decades.