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

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

#351

Post by beaunative » Mon, Aug 30, 2021, 5:32 PM UTC

jrochkind1 wrote: post #253

beaunative wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically, the state doesn't place restrictions on the kids, which is legally impossible, they place restrictions on the digital entertainment business where they are required to allow entry for kid for no longer than said duration.

> Technically, the state doesn't place restrictions on the kids, which is legally impossible, What makes that legally impossible in China? ( edit or do you just mean hard to enforce? I thought you meant something different by "legally impossible", I may have misunderstood).

Kids can't be criminally punished/sued, not for things like these.

Kids can be sued for damages to others which ultimately their parents/guardians would be required to pay which doesn't exist in this case.

This is similar to how age restriction for alcohol is enforced in the US, interestingly, age restriction on alcohol consumption wasn't enforced in China, though made into law.

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

#352

Post by hammeiam » Mon, Aug 30, 2021, 5:32 PM UTC

What are the odds that this isn't an effort to get kids offline, and instead an attempt at freeing bandwidth or reducing energy consumption? This feels like when they banned bitcoin mining at the same time they were having rolling brownouts - the issue wasn't the mining but the resources it consumed.

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

#353

Post by sudosysgen » Mon, Aug 30, 2021, 5:32 PM UTC

bennysomething wrote: post #300

jliptzin wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If someone is putting off other important things in their life to play video games then that's definitely a problem. However, if people want to set aside 100% of their free time to play video games, I don't think that's any worse than other things people do with their time that we (as a society) hold in high regard such as becoming a chess grandmaster, practicing violin 12 hours / day, watching football games nonstop…

Struggling to come up with a logical counter argument but learning a musical instrument is deeply satisfy as is listening to someone live who is good. Also maybe just in terms of being attractive to other people saying you are a level 122 mage in world of ever crack does not quite have the same allure as being able to captivate a room with your piano playing. Edit when I was about 12 I started playing the guitar non…

There is a real difference between the two. The primary goal of playing an instrument is to make something that sounds good. The goals of video games are generally manufactured.

The exception are games like Minecraft. But if someone builds a computer in Minecraft or finishes a beautiful build that can actually be captivating to people that don't play it.

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

#354

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Aug 30, 2021, 5:33 PM UTC

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…

[deleted]

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

#355

Post by adenozine » Mon, Aug 30, 2021, 5:33 PM UTC

Conspiracy theory I just made up, don't take seriously:

This is to control the demand for GPUs, as there is now such a drastically psychotic situation around the supply that a nation-state must now intervene to allocate cards for their AI projects.

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

#356

Post by coolspot » Mon, Aug 30, 2021, 5:33 PM UTC

artur_makly wrote: post #56

Finally I have an official excuse to tell my 9yr old why he must curtail his addiction. "You want daddy to go to Chinese jail???"

Rule #1 of parenting 2020+:

“Don’t stand in a way between a 9yo and Roblox”

They will absolutely send you in jail rather than give up Roblox/MC/Youtube.

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

#357

Post by TeMPOraL » Mon, Aug 30, 2021, 5:34 PM UTC

meristohm wrote: post #290

jliptzin wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If someone is putting off other important things in their life to play video games then that's definitely a problem. However, if people want to set aside 100% of their free time to play video games, I don't think that's any worse than other things people do with their time that we (as a society) hold in high regard such as becoming a chess grandmaster, practicing violin 12 hours / day, watching football games nonstop…

South Korea has built a collective sense of value around Starcraft, but it feels too far removed from meatspace where we will likely occupy for a long time yet. Music seems more valuable, along with the ability to tell a good story. Sometimes they overlap. I’ve been enjoying Fire Draw Near, a podcast by Ian Lynch about the folk-music tradition of Ireland. “Work, Rest, Play, Die” by The Subhumans has melodic roots in…

> A value-test I use is: “how useful/feasible is this activity if I don’t have a computer or similar technology that is predicated on significant infrastructure?”

That would discount most hugely important activities like, say, medicine. In general, I don't think testing against dependency on modern infrastructure is useful, except when you're preparing for a post-apocalyptic world.

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

#358

Post by CmdSheppard » Mon, Aug 30, 2021, 5:34 PM UTC

Glad I don’t live in China

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

#359

Post by throwawaymanbot » Mon, Aug 30, 2021, 5:34 PM UTC

This is not about Kids gaming and it ruining their minds. This is about Chinas gaming kids playing games where people can talk/converse with/to them, and thus depart "information" without much official control.

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

#360

Post by sudosysgen » Mon, Aug 30, 2021, 5:34 PM UTC

Jensson wrote: post #335

bennysomething wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Struggling to come up with a logical counter argument but learning a musical instrument is deeply satisfy as is listening to someone live who is good. Also maybe just in terms of being attractive to other people saying you are a level 122 mage in world of ever crack does not quite have the same allure as being able to captivate a room with your piano playing. Edit when I was about 12 I started playing the guitar non…

> Also maybe just in terms of being attractive to other people saying you are a level 122 mage in world of ever crack does not quite have the same allure as being able to captivate a room with your piano playing. That is really the main gist of it, women don't care much about video gaming and therefore society condemns it. Men on the other hand will probably be way more excited about your skills and endeavours in a v…

It's not really about women. The levels in video games are manufactured goals. Making music sound good is an innate goal. In the same way making a beautiful build in Minecraft is also an innate goal and so is finding a creative way to optimize your factory in Factorio, which is why that's a lot more impressive to people outside the game than becoming a level 121 mage.