Posts Tagged ‘ministry’

Triple Regulation Coming True After All

February 7th, 2012

The Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology(MEST) proclaimed that games are one of causes of school violence yesterday, introducing a Cooling-off system and a private fund raised by the game industry.

The Cooling-off system is a system that would automatically kick those who play the game for two hours out of the game and permit them only one more re-login per a day after 10 minutes of rest. So the minors are permitted playing the games for only four hours a day at the most.

The MEST also asked complement in game rating system so as to strengthen the rating for minors, demanding stricter rating standards on the games and more experts in education and youth in the rating committee. In cooperation with the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family(MGEF), it would also quarterly implement investigations over the games in order to reflect the result to later deliberation. In other words, it is even planning a post-censorship.

Here’s more. The MEST is considering a policy similar to the 1% game tax of the MGEF, giving the industry an opportunity to take social responsibility on the game addiction by expanding and legalizing the private fund. “We must protect the minors from the harmful factors such as the game and internet addiction. In an educational point of view, we had not put our effort enough to control the rating, regulation, and harmful causes. Therefore we will improve the system and redouble the preventive, healing actions in order to deter the school violence and harming mental health due to the cruelty of the game and internet,” said the MEST.

The Cooling-off system would not be enforced immediately for now, but the game industry is resisting against the system strongly as the triple regulation-the forcible Shutdown system, the selective Shutdown system, and the Cooling-off system, seems to be coming true.

They are pointing out that the government is proposing the system without giving any reasonable or scientific ground that the games are a root of the school violence.

The most controversial one is the expansion and legalization of the private fund raised by the game industry. The industry views it as the ministry’s plot to impose its short of budget on the industry.

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MEST Tries to Precensor Games Privately

February 1st, 2012

The Ministry of Education,, Science, and Technology(MEST) seems to found an organization called ‘Healthy Game Review Committee(HGRC)’ which would be in charge of precensorship over games as a means to root out school bully.

The HGRC, which would be comprised of a group of non-gaming industry officials including school teachers and parents, seems to be in charge of reviewing Everyone, Teen(12+), and Mature(15+) games in order to once again classify them according to violence, nudity, etc. Yet whether its result would restrict the actual game release is not known. Full details on the committee will be introduced on February 6.

The ministry’s such action, however, collides with the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism(MCST)’s will to transfer the deliberation to a private organization which is scheduled to be launched this July. If they push forward with it, an unprecedented double rating would come true following the triple regulation.

“The MEST is messing up the effort of the MCST’s transfer of the game rating system to the private. I have no idea why the government is so obsessed with suppressing the game industry with the double censorship and the triple regulation in such situation that most of precensorship over the cultural content have gradually been removed today,” said an unnamed industry official. “There is a rumor that the MEST is also plotting a measure to set up a fund from the game industry. If the regulation and the precensorship from the MEST are for the future fund, they are definitely unacceptable.”

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Don’t Play Games For 2 Hours Or You Will Be Banned

January 25th, 2012

The Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology(MEST) is reportedly reviewing a policy that forcibly bans young students’ online game accounts played either for two hours consecutively or for more than three hours a day.

The MEST believes the game addiction derives from not specific playing period but amount of playing time. Therefore it insists a certain restriction according to each age besides the time restriction-the Shutdown Systems-is needed.

The policy is being developed on the premise that the game addiction caused a suicide accident happened in Daegu last year. So the MEST deeply understands the games are harmful.

Some questioned equity and effectiveness of the policy because its targets are basically the PC online games that can be shut down easily.

“We had not concatenated the game to the education policy because we had considered it as one of leisure activities for the students. But we now believe that the game addiction impacts on the school life significantly,” said an official from the MEST.

But the industry’s view is different. They see this situation as that the government is actually making the games a scapegoat for its failure of the education system. Moreover there are concerns that violation of policy has been made as recent game related laws came not from the charged ministry, the MCST(Minstry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism), but from other ministries, the MEST and the MGEF(Ministry of Gender Equality and Family).

 

The Game Industry “It’s a Triple Regulation.”

According to the game industry, the MEST’s policy is backed up by a theory that playing a game for a long time affects negatively both body and brain. However the basis is just a hypothesis that has not been even approved medically.

Especially, they are criticizing that the policy is a typical bureaucratic administration following the forcible shutdown system of the MGEF and the selective shutdown system of the MCST.

If the third restriction takes effect, total three powerful laws will help helpless parents stopping their born-to-study children from playing the online games over night or for more than two hours a day.

“If the game industry is really a trouble maker, then the related governments should discuss and provide a guideline to instruct us. Making similar policies from three different ministries does not make any sense at all. The two shutdown systems of the MGEF and the MCST should be repealed if the MEST’s regulation is reasonable,” said an industry official.

Meanwhile, the MEST has announced that it will reduce the amount of curriculum for elementary, middle, and high school students by 20% by 2014, scaling down Morality course which is essential for personality education for students.

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