Ministry of Culture Establishes New Censorship Regulations

The Ministry of Culture issued a new set of regulations for content published on the Internet, called “Management Approach for Internet Culture Business Units Self Censorship,” and it took effect December 1st. The rules for online games will not change, but the process for content approval and censorship will be simplified and optimized. The MOC says that each company will self-censor, and will have a primary internal staff member responsible for censorship. This applies to PC games, music, mobile games, and other digital entertainment.

Imported games will still be subject to the MOC censorship process, but with the new process of self-censorship for domestically made games (including those by foreign companies), the approval process should be 50% faster. The MOC says that if the process of self-censorship for online PC games and mobile games does not go according to plan, they will switch back to the previous system (though previously the GAPP was in charge of censorship of games prior to launch). Niko will continue to follow this new system.