The Law on Protecting Children and Youth in Case of Playing Online Games

Abstract

The objectives of this research are as follows; 1) to study the facts and problems arising from the protection of children and youth from playing online games; 2) to study the current Thai legal measures concerning online games and gambling games and laws regulating business operations related to online game; and 3) to study of relevant foreign legal measures in relation to online game and conduct a comparative analysis aiming at development of Thai laws to protect children and youth from playing online games. The methodology of this research was considered qualitative research equipped with content analysis and comparative analysis of Thai and foreign laws. In addition, in-dept interview with 9 stakeholders were also applied.

The results of this comparative analysis of Thai laws and foreign laws of 5 countries namely China, South Korea, Singapore, United Kingdom and Germany were as follows. It could be observed that there were no specific measures of the Thai laws to protect children and the youth from the game addiction systematically, especially no required permission from the parents and limited age of players. Although, some relevant laws could be observed to restrict time limit of playing games such the Film and Video Act B.E. 2551 which appeared to control games provider or internet café by restricting service time for the youth. In addition, the limitation of this law could be observed as it appeared to control only the internet café. However, this law did not appear to cover game providers that offer service or online game via mobile phones which children could play at anytime and anyplace. So, the law could not be applied to protect children playing online game via mobile devices. In addition, the measures to impose age limitation and required parent permission for playing online game, game contents, registration, permission for the forbidden games including rules and punishment for service providers were not found in Thai laws.