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China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week

reuters.com

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Re: China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week

#301

Post by dragonwriter »

javajosh wrote: post #279
krsdcbl wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i find it amazing how much tolerance is expressed when authoritarian rule is passed "for the kids sake". I feel reminded of the current apple issue. Are people really that ready to accept dictate over their and their kids behaviour in the name of moral and health? Isn't "time spent online" miles away from what the government should be allowed to regulate in your life?

Impressive doesn't mean good. I don't have any control over what the CCP does, which is why I hope the action they've taken will not hurt people. If the CCP decided to ban smoking, it would be a violation of people's rights. But it would also be a net benefit to almost everyone, and to society (health care costs would go down). That kind of authoritarianism is a LOT easier to stomach than, say, putting the Uygars int…

> If the CCP decided to ban smoking, it would be a violation of people's rights. But it would also be a net benefit to almost everyone, and to society

I think you are conflating “banning” with “convincing people to stop”; these are not the same. The PRC has banned lots of things without actually stopping them, and lots of countries have banned lots of addictive drugs without stopping their use, and with a whole lot of social harms resulting from the attempts to enforce the bans.

> health care costs would go down

Health care outcomes would no doubt improve if smoking was reduced by a ban, but healthcare costs would probably go up. IIRC, most studies have shown that reducing smoking increases lifetime healthcare costs (because, simplifying, people spend more time dealing with treatable problems instead of dead from incurable lung cancer.)

Re: China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week

#302

Post by bigwavedave »

MeinBlutIstBlau wrote: post #243
namelessoracle wrote: post #7

I have mixed feelings about this. Younger me learned a lot of problem solving skills and most importantly spent a lot of time learning how to read by playing RPGs and games that required lots of reading. My reading skills would not have been as advanced if i wasn't playing text heavy games that had a lot of plot like Square Enix games and the CRPGs of the time. Modern games though are clearly designed to get you as a…

Videogames are addicting as all hell and create NEETs. End of story. Parents who are lazy and just want their kids to stop bothering them just give them to their kids without realizing it can destroy their early socialization skills. I love videogames, but jesus I'd limit my kids use of it to either playing socially or with family. If it's alone, it had better be for short amounts of time. Videogames should be social…

> Parents who are lazy and just want their kids to stop bothering them just give them to their kids without realizing it can destroy their early socialization skills.

These hypothetical children have spent all day socializing at school- if that gets "destroyed" by a few hours of being left to their own devices, better stop them from reading and playing with Legos alone in their rooms too. Claiming video games ruin social skills because playing them is an activity performed alone is utter nonsense.

Re: China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week

#303

Post by aero-glide2 »

kuschku wrote: post #292
Tiktaalik wrote: post #238

This will destroy the Chinese games industry and this may have broader implications than just stocks in free fall. Video game programming is very cutting edge technology (eg. 3D graphics, animation, wayfinding, and more). China throwing this industry away will mean there are no home grown video game programmers which will have implications on their entire software engineering capability. This gives the rest of the wo…

Honestly, it'll just destroy the shitty gambling microtransaction games. Most studios will focus on offline games again, back to old-school games. Honestly, I'm a fan of this. No harm done to anything worth saving.

Then just regulate the microtransactions instead of doing this.

Re: China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week

#304

Post by gmadsen »

brundolf wrote: post #92
tgv wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading did that for me. > They were one of the few avenues I had for connecting with my peers Three hours a week isn't much, but it doesn't have to be gaming to connect with people of your age, isn't it? > It wasn't some waste of time that I regret when I look back as an adult. I don't think it's what worries the Chinese government. Or me. I'm quite sure that e.g. a 1 hr/day limit would be a good thing. You can say…

> Reading did that for me. Reading decidedly did not do that for me. I didn't have the attention span for/interest in most books. > but it doesn't have to be gaming to connect with people of your age, isn't it? Socializing was always difficult for me. Gaming was one of the few things I could mention and my peers would say "oh, me too!" > I'm quite sure that e.g. a 1 hr/day limit would be a good thing That would be mo…

I assume a government mandate would be controlled at the ISP level. Most parents aren't tech savy enough for that. As a child, I was easily able to hide playing games.

Re: China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week

#305

Post by moulei »

mlillie wrote: post #153
lnyng wrote: post #110

Original notice from the government: https://web.archive.org/web/20210830120201/http://www.nppa.g... Google translation of the first entry: > Strictly limit the time for providing online game services to minors. Since the implementation of this notice, all online game companies can only provide minors with one-hour online game services from 20 to 21:00 on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and legal holidays. At other times, i…

Is the original article not a major journalistic misstep then? Nowhere does it clarify that this only applies to online gaming.

I found some government documents to support my view that all games available on the Internet are "online games" in the eyes of the Chinese government

http://www.gov.cn/flfg/2010-06/22/content_1633935.htm

translated form deepl: "The online game referred to in this method refers to the software program and information data composition, through the Internet, mobile communication networks and other information networks to provide game products and services.

Online game online operation refers to the business behavior of providing game products and services to the public through information networks using user systems or fee-based systems.

Online game virtual currency refers to the virtual exchange tool issued by online game operation unit and purchased directly or indirectly by online game users using legal tender in a certain proportion, existing outside the game program, stored in the server in the form of electromagnetic records and expressed in specific digital units."

Re: China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week

#306

Post by prpl »

namelessoracle wrote: post #212
jimbilly22 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

mixed feelings because it's under 18, and therefore you dont feel that freedom of self is as important? Would you feel differently if this was for adults?

I think it's important to realize that children dont have the cognitive ability to resist certain things. Gambling skinner boxes are those things. I would be completely oky with my kid binging on the latest Mario or Mario Kart. I would love to see them playing an RPG. I dont want them playing Fortnite and other skinner box style games. They have teams designed to addict kids. This probably sounds silly but i would be…

Our biggest problem with Fortnite is that it’s where the friends are so it’s a way, probably the primary way, for them to socialize - especially as some friends are on different continents.

I wish this wasn’t the case, but fighting a network effect is hard as a parent.

Re: China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week

#307

Post by Dracophoenix »

swman wrote: post #100
namelessoracle wrote: post #7

I have mixed feelings about this. Younger me learned a lot of problem solving skills and most importantly spent a lot of time learning how to read by playing RPGs and games that required lots of reading. My reading skills would not have been as advanced if i wasn't playing text heavy games that had a lot of plot like Square Enix games and the CRPGs of the time. Modern games though are clearly designed to get you as a…

I think it really depends. I have way too many personal anecdotes of people I knew from back in the day (middle/high school) who gamed like 8 hours a day. Most of those people were _addicted_, and a handful went on to drop out of college and aren't really doing that great today. They still play 8+ hours a day.. I remember I'd ask them if they wanted to study, or if they want to go hiking or do something IRL, but they…

Was this Runescape per chance?

Re: China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week

#308

Post by lvs »

uncoder0 wrote: post #255
rank0 wrote: post #235

I am appalled by all the supportive comments in this thread. Why are HN users so comfortable with authoritarian government? It’s about more than just online games. It’s about control. I’m sure the great firewall is perfectly fine as well?

I feel like the last year of 'quarantine' for most of the Western world has made people more comfortable with authoritarian governments and actions. It's rather alarming how widespread and quickly this change in ideology has happened.

The analogy doesn't hold. It's hard to say that video games are an acute crisis causing hundreds of thousands of deaths.

Re: China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week

#309

Post by gmadsen »

pessimizer wrote: post #78
Xplune13 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main problem here is shoehorning of government between people's lives. Every parent has their own way of doing things. Some parents may allow kids to play longer, some may not but government should not be involved in this matter. I don't think this is a case of "because..... communists". This move is rightly criticized in my opinion.

> government should not be involved in this matter. But this is just a declaration, not an argument (there's nothing wrong with that.) Should parents be able to let their children smoke or do porn?

I'm fairly sure that US parents do have the ability to give their children tobacco and porn. They just can't purchase it themselves

Re: China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week

#310

Post by persedes »

Speaking from my own childhood, I'd be curios if kids in China are going to try to circumvent this ban or if it is even possible to do so. (Similar to how homepages ask for your birthday... no one is going to check up on it).

While this ban seems very specific (only online, certain hours of the week) I wonder if the companies might try to overachieve and extend it to offline games or social media platforms as well. Guess it depends on how the parents/ companies interpret that law (is it a law?). Watching the recent VIPKid / online teaching fallout, they just banned online classes very short notice for the remaining summer holidays. According to some VIPKid teachers however they're not getting new classes booked for september or the existing ones are getting cancelled.

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