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Thailand proposes ID cards for game servers

Staff CNETAsia

Published: 28 Jul 2003 11:47 BST

Online game servers should authenticate national ID cards so that older players won't be trapped by a curfew aimed at students, according to a proposal by a Thai minister.

The Thai Information and Communications Technology minister, Surapong Suebwonglee, made the suggestion at a recent seminar on gaming, according to the news daily The Nation.

He was responding to criticism that Thailand's national curfew on online gaming, aimed at stopping students from neglecting rest and studies, had side effects, such as stopping older players from playing.

If online game servers for Ragnarok and other games could authenticate national ID cards, older players wouldn't get caught in the curfew, he said. The report did not say if he had responded to the question of younger players using IDs of older friends and relatives.

He also suggested that Internet cafes changed the pricing scheme for time on computers. The current system makes time cheaper in bulk, encouraging users to play more, according to the report.

On 15 July, the government closed online game servers between 6 am and 10 pm, until September, in a bid to curb what it felt was an online gaming epidemic that was causing the neglect of school and also breeding crime.