<Anchor>



A game called 'Minecraft' is popular among elementary school students. But now you must be over 19 years old to play this game. It is because of the shutdown system that blocks late-night games for teenagers, but it has been on the brink of extinction 10 years after its implementation.



This is reporter Kim Ki-tae's report.



<Reporter> The



world-famous game Minecraft is often called a 'super-presidential game' because many children use it.



Recently, it is also attracting attention as a metaverse platform that communicates with others in virtual space and builds your own world.



Last year, the Blue House also held a Children's Day event in Minecraft.



[Children, welcome to the Blue House.]



Recently, however, Microsoft, the operator of Minecraft, announced that "Korean users must be 19 years of age or older to play Minecraft."



Instead of building a separate server for Korea that blocks specific age groups during the youth 'shutdown system' from midnight to 6 am, the policy has been changed to only allow adults to sign up.



Complaints from users arose.



[Jeonhyeonsu / 'Our Minecraft space' cafe operators. Yigoyo really terrible feeling, since inde already protagonist in from Korea gaming underage gamers, shut down you 're blocking the use of its first -



a "shutdown the' The excuse of the crisis about "Opposition voices increased, saying, "It will shrink the rights of underage gamers and related industries, and will only lead to isolation of the Korean market."



[Whee Jung-hyun / President of the Korean Game Society: The main purpose of the shutdown system was how helpful it was to protect the sleep and health of teenagers, but it did not help at all in terms of effectiveness.] The



shutdown system was designed to prevent youth game addiction. Although it began to be implemented in 2011, it has been repeatedly pointed out that the compulsory blocking of PCs is an outdated regulation in a situation where the game market has already shifted to mobile.



A number of amendments to the abolition of the shutdown system have also been proposed in the political circles that have recognized the problem. The government also announced that it would discuss system improvement, and the shutdown system is on the verge of extinction for the first time in 10 years.



(Video editing: Jeong Seong-hoon, VJ: Park Hyun-woo)