Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

501–510 of 1001 posts

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

#501

Post by devnulll »

goostavos wrote: post #428
uncoder0 wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't even know where people are coming from any more. Like literally everyone else in tech who knows how the sausage gets made, I'm appalled by the teams of Ph.Ds which exist solely to exploit the dopamine response of children. However, it never would have ever crossed my mind to jump from "here's a particular problem" to "the government should control how much of a specific activity your child can do at home"

There are all sorts of things governments express control over, even at home.

The obvious scenarios are alcohol, nicotine & drugs. As a parent of young children, there are addition parallels between Minecraft / Roblox / Alcohol / Cigarettes.

To a real degree, more effort is put into making gaming deliberately additive - although flavored vaping (bubble gum, cotton candy, etc) would like to enter the conversation.

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

#502

Post by sergiotapia »

solox3 wrote: post #126
sergiotapia wrote: post #116

Is crime going to skyrocket? These kids are going to have a lot of time on their hands and nowhere to spend it.

One could try reading a book, learning a new skill, or socializing.

That's not how it works for the majority of bored kids with raging hormones.

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

#504

Post by bradford »

Dracophoenix wrote: post #375
bradford wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

both online/offline games can skew your internal reward/reinforcement system, but online games have a kind of social pressure that I just don't see with offline. Social circles are established around online gaming; my teenager feels like he's letting his friends down if he doesn't spend enough time with 'The Clan'. His 'membership' with the group is at risk if he doesn't contribute his time. It's made life somewhat d…

>>Social circles are established around online gaming; my teenager feels like he's letting his friends down if he doesn't spend enough time with 'The Clan'. His 'membership' with the group is at risk if he doesn't contribute his time. Social circles are established around a common interest. Most people have to have some shared interest in order to be friends. I don't know how your son would socialize if he didn't hav…

There's an obvious pattern where every generation has had their activities scrutinized (and often feared) by the parent generation, and the scrutiny/fear is usually not justifiable.

That said, a pattern is a pattern until it isn't, and I think it's fair to ask what criteria you'd use to evaluate the cost/benefit of some activity on a cohort of individuals that lack a fully developed frontal lobe.

Some questions going through my mind as I've witnessed my children during quarantine:

1. Does the activity negatively impact the individuals ability to satisfy other obligations (academic, fiscal, personal-care, etc)?

2. Does the activity require only a shared interest, or is active participation required? if the latter, what's the time demand of the participation?

3. If the individual ceases the activity, will they maintain relationships with the individuals they participated with?

4. Can proficiency in the activity translate to other endeavors?

5. does the idea of taking a break from the activity cause anxiety or stress?

I let my kids play the games because I want them to have some autonomy, but online games in particular result in greater negative answers for these questions than other activities (including offline games).

Curious about your observations... do you find there's no difference between online vs. offline?

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

#505

Post by ip26 »

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?

It’s about more than just online games. It’s about control

Isn't this more likely to provoke the opposite? Addictive time-wasters are an aid to authoritarian government.

Assuming this policy is effectively enforced, Chinese youth suddenly have a lot more free time on their hands.

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

#506

Post by mcdonje »

skystarman wrote: post #436
woofie11 wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm no more or less comfortable with authoritarian government than I am with an authoritarian market-based corporatocracy. Odds are that you are under an NDA which limits your freedom of speech. Odds are that if you refused to sign one, you couldn't afford a mortgage in a place with a lot of tech. Odds are you will sign more NDAs so your kids can keep going to the same school. The freedom of no regulation is an illus…

I'm not sure a country that commits cultural genocide and sent a million or more Muslim Uighurs into reeducation camps is where you should be looking for a "better system". Forced sterilization, forced labor... Or a country that has no freedom of the press, savagely beats or murders political dissidents, will take away your job and livelihood if you dare question CCP orthodoxy... The fact that you think is somehow mo…

What's astonishing is how thoroughly you missed their point.

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

#507

Post by OOPMan »

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…

Modern games is a bit of a blanket statement.

There are tons of modern games (arguably the majority when you consider the size of the market) that are not skinner boxes.

If all you're looking at is AAA games and mobile crap, then sure. But there's more to games than that stuff.

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

#508

Post by vmladenov »

Thaxll wrote: post #367
namelessoracle wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Kids don't play EA games, however Fortnite, CoD warzone, Roblox ...

Apex Legends is EA

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

#509

Post by daveidol »

lhorie wrote: post #91

People talking about the benefits of games reminds me of people talking about the benefits of, say, a glass of wine with every meal: it's worth looking into but at the same time it's the sort of thing that obviously doesn't scale linearly with the amount/intensity of consumption. I similarly have mixed feelings as well, but for slightly different reasons. I've read about studies that say that musical training (which…

I don't think anyone in this thread has discussed one of the other important aspects of gaming: the social aspect.

Especially in an era of "quarantine at home" - online gaming can be a very social activity and a way to make/grow friendships and play with others.

(Obviously I think getting outdoors and being active instead of staring at a screen all day is probably even better, but that is one benefit of games over just "grinding")

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

#510

Post by true_religion »

everdrive wrote: post #280
lhorie wrote: post #91

People talking about the benefits of games reminds me of people talking about the benefits of, say, a glass of wine with every meal: it's worth looking into but at the same time it's the sort of thing that obviously doesn't scale linearly with the amount/intensity of consumption. I similarly have mixed feelings as well, but for slightly different reasons. I've read about studies that say that musical training (which…

Video games work best as a lesser of many evils, and come with a few caveats: If you watch a lot of TV, it's hard to argue that video games are a worse use of your time. Video games do have some legitimate benefits, but it's probably hard to say that they are more beneficial than other things you could be doing with your time. (ie, reading difficult literature or articles vs. reading RPG text.) However, people aren't…

Sure but I’m not really comfortable with this level of government interference with peoples lives.

No one ever stopped me from playing soccer for 5 hours a day when I was younger, and in high school sports practice was a 3 hour minimum.

This restricts game play to 3 hours per week. That means essentially you can’t play video games for leisure … while at the same time you are forced to do a minimum of 40 hours a week in education (normal school + cram school + homework).

If you can only play a video game for 25 minutes a day, you might as well never play.

Post reply on HN