Korea prepares midnight curfew for MMO-playing teens. 'Straight to bed without supper' clause unconfirmed

The Korean Culture Ministry has had enough of people becoming addicted to online games and dying in internet cafes. We would too. Its answer is to nip potential addiction cases in the bud by imposing a curfew on under-16s who play MMOs after midnight. After a one-month trial through June, a 12am-6am curfew will be put into full effect in July.

According to South Korean newspaper Korea Times, it's reckoned that 87% of the country's 100 most popular online games will be affected, leaving educational titles and online games from smaller and medium-sized companies unblocked.

Admittedly, Korea does seem to be the source for many of the more horrific cases of MMO addiction, such as the man who played Starcraft for 50 hours in an internet café, non-stop, until his heart gave up from exhaustion.

But is a six-hour enforced break for teens really the answer? And don't Korean mums pull the plug out of the wall like ours did?

Source: KoreaTimes

Justin Towell

Justin was a GamesRadar staffer for 10 years but is now a freelancer, musician and videographer. He's big on retro, Sega and racing games (especially retro Sega racing games) and currently also writes for Play Magazine, Traxion.gg, PC Gamer and TopTenReviews, as well as running his own YouTube channel. Having learned to love all platforms equally after Sega left the hardware industry (sniff), his favourite games include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, Zelda BotW, Sea of Thieves, Sega Rally Championship and Treasure Island Dizzy.