Shutdown System started to take effect from 20th of November without any significant troubles.
Game companies in Korea applied Shutdown System into their games 2~3 days earlier to prevent any sudden confusion among customers. Young Korean gamers under 16 can not play all online games from 12:00AM to 6:00AM.
However, most of people have doubts about the effectiveness of the system. First, there are still 5% of them playing online games until dawn according to the statistics because they are using not their own account, instead using parents’ account that created by their social security numbers.
Second, the system does not provide a clear guideline. For instance, young people still could play League of Legend(LOL) on NA server instead of Korean server. Classic Battle.net from Blizzard is another exception because it is free and does not have age verification feature within it.
On the other hands, XBox Live and PSN are under the system because Xbox Live is not free while PSN is collecting personal information.
PSN decided not allowing registration under 16, which PSN gives up customer under 16 because PSN thinks they are minority. Xbox360 has internal parental system indeed and does not collect personal information but Ministry of Gender Equality & Familysimply does not accept the concept of parental system and want Xbox Live to collect personal information to apply Shutdown System. Xbox Live has a grace period for 2 months.
The worst thing could happen after 2 months when the grace period ends. Xbox Live might need to block Korean service or block everyone include adults not to play Xbox Live during late night.
We already heard that some foreign companies rescind ongoing projects in Korea or reconsider from the scratch.
The ministry wants game companies in Korea to apply account certification system into their games to prevent fault using of stolen social security numbers. Companies need to collect additional personal information such as social security numbers, phone numbers and credit card information to apply it. It is exact opposite of the personal information protection law.
MoonHwaYunDae(http://www.culturalaction.org/)(MHYD) sends the public inquiry to the ministry related to Shutdown System and requests answers. However, The ministry denied giving any more answers.
There is a growing controversy over the announcement from MOGEF(Ministry of Gender, Equality & Family) about Game evaluation detailed plan proposal.
BoHwan Park Assembly member and other 10 people of the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology(MEST) have submitted a special bill about prevention and treatment of internet game addiction in minors on February 6.
