Sony Shuts PSN Down Overnights for Underage Korean Gamers

[PS3 News]

Today Sony Computer Entertainment of Korea (SCEK) has http://ruliweb.daum.net/news/view/38118.daum that PSN will be shutdown overnights for underage Korean gamers in an effort to comply South Korea's Shutdown Law and prevent players under sixteen from gaming during the six hour block.

To quote from Kotaku (linked above): "The law is designed to limit Korean youth's late night gaming as well as online game addiction. It also aims to ensure Korean youth get six hours of sleep each night, with online gaming banned between midnight and 6am.

Starting Nov. 18, Sony will not allow players under the age of sixteen to make new PSN accounts in South Korea as well as prevent them from logging onto the PSN.

Both Sony and Microsoft are saying it is difficult to develop and implement shutdown systems for under-sixteen players in such a short window of time. Sony cannot say when it will have a system up and running, and it will announce how it will handle the PS Vita at a later date.

The Sony shutdown system would allow under 16-year-old players to log in during the day, but prevent them from playing between midnight and 6am. It would also prevent them from making new accounts, meaning that Sony of Korea would probably be monitoring the accounts by IP addresses.

While PSN users must enter their age and birthday when making an account, Microsoft of Korea apparently doesn't collect age data for all players, complicating enforcement. Thus, Microsoft is actually considering shutting down Xbox Live for all players, regardless of age, during the designated shutdown block.

Nintendo of Korea has yet to reveal how it will deal with enforcing the Shutdown Law."


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[jesterking1]

Way to be the parents Sony!

[PS3 News]

Heh, indeed. Although with some of the parents these days, maybe kids are better off that way.

[Bartholomy]

Well done. Korean young players are completely mindless. I saw with my eyes a huge community of players able to play an entire night no stop. 14 years players. Gosh. I hope Sony and M$ will find soon a solution and lock everything.

[moja]

Interesting. I dare say they should have that law in other countries, but then there should be more responsibility on the parent.

[wwywong]

I am just wondering, how real their age are in the psn account. Can't they just fake one (there is no linkage to real person when you get an account as I remember)? Or simply borrow other older kid's account. I don't think it will be very effective. But nonetheless it's good practice. Hope there is no school riots from this ban...

[SwordOfWar]

Short of shutting the entire system down, I don't see how they will be able to accurately detect users under 16. Surely households have under and over 16 age users, so who is to say new accounts are not legit over 16 users instead of people trying to create a new account to bypass the shutdown?

I'm glad I don't live in Korea, because this seems really annoying for people over 16 if the entire service shuts down. I'm over 16, and even I don't like this enforcement.

Yay for the USA and being able to game anytime you want, without the government controlling your schedule!

[Foo]

Asians are hardcore when it comes to gaming... I'm talking like 48 hours non-stop. This will help the Americans win more

[CS67700]

Nope, in Korea when you want to register for something (any website or any service on the internet) you need to enter your social security number, which is unique and very personal. Under 16 don't have one, they either have to use their parents or an adult willing to help them (the name has to correspond to the social number, or it will detect a fraud).

Korea is well advanced in this field.

[Bartholomy]

Totally true. For nearly every internet game. May you explain me how i have a korean account and i play with it? I'm not korean

Ever been in korea?