It has been five years since the domestic gaming industry managed to eradicate the contagion known as the 'mandatory game shutdown law'. Yet, a new strain of illness is spreading from our neighbors: 'new media regulation', which legally restricts teenagers' access to games and social media.

This novel contagion is currently going global. Since 2021, China has been strictly limiting minors to a mere three hours of gaming per week—specifically, one hour on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday—and recently, Vietnam joined the party by pushing for a one-hour daily gaming limit and social media restrictions for youth. In 2024, Australia became the first in the world to push for a social media ban for minors, with the UK and France following suit. The US is also locking horns with federal courts while enacting laws in various states to verify the age of minors on social media, and India is currently enforcing over-immersion regulations across multiple states, making this appear to be a global trend.

Having barely recovered from the shutdown law, there is significant anxiety that this contagion might arrive on our shores. Parents remain as concerned as ever about their children's gaming and social media habits, and the National Assembly has indeed identified short-form content and social media addiction as a core issue. New regulatory bills are popping up, proposing daily time limits for users under 14 or 16, or mandating parental consent for exposure to 'addictive' algorithms. The real headache lies in the blurred lines between games and social media. Roblox is already on the verge of being classified as an online platform rather than a game in Europe, and major platforms like Steam could easily be swept up and regulated as social media depending on how the laws are drafted.

Of course, the resurrection of the failed 'mandatory shutdown law' is unlikely. However, the threat of a second shutdown law disguised as 'social media regulation' is lurking once more. To prevent the pitfalls of social media addiction, rather than opting for blunt age-based consumer blocks, it would be far more effective to mandate 'safety-by-design' for service providers. We must meticulously review measures such as granting teenagers the right to refuse algorithm tracking and disabling features like infinite scrolling and late-night push notifications to prevent the nightmare of a 'new-type shutdown law' from becoming our reality.