[News Today] Int’l game events disrupt children’s sleep

[LEAD]
A U.S.-based mobile game has become hugely popular among elementary school students in Korea.

But in-game events held in the early hours of the morning, timed for overseas users, are keeping children up all night.

Some are even showing up late to school, leaving parents increasingly worried.

[REPORT]
A mobile game platform extremely popular among elementary school students these days.

Worldwide, it has nearly 400 million users.

Kim Ji-ho / Elementary school student
At school, almost all students in each class play this game.
It's very popular.

On this platform, events are frequently held where game items are gifted when users log in at a certain time.

The problem is the time at which the events are held.

As the events tend to cater to the large portion of users in the U.S. and Europe, they are often held in the early hours in Korea.

This is why children in Korea stay up all night or get up way early in the morning.

Shim Eun-jin / Parent of elementary schooler
Children go to sleep nervous because they feel pressure about making sure they get up at 3:50 a.m. and not miss the alarm.

Some are even late to school after taking part in an event that began at 4 a.m.

Nam Woo-hyung / Elementary school student
There was a 4 a.m. event on Sunday, a taco event at 8 a.m. Wednesday.
I wanted to do it so badly and ended up being late to school.

Some games on this platform have violent content but there's no age verification process and sending in petitions to the U.S. head office is a tall order.

Cha Jae-cheol / Parent of elementary schooler
They say "kill! kill!" in the virtual world.
But reckless acceptance of such notions can blur the lines between the real and virtual worlds.

The game time selection system, established as an alternative to the shutdown rule scrapped in 2022, does not apply to mobile games.

Prof. Lim Myung-ho / Dankook University
It's not only a matter of sleep. It affects a host of issues related to interaction with parents, concentration and impulsive behavior.

This platform boasts some two million users in Korea.

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