Really strange decision to make in the middle of a pandemic. You would think they would be encouraging activities which enable social distancing, not banning them.
China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week
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Re: China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week
#512I 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?
People don't care about what China does inside China as opposed to what it does outside.
Re: China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week
#513Earlier quoted context omitted.
The time I spent in virtual worlds as a child remains one of the most cherished experiences of my life. They brought me happiness at times when nothing else did. They stoked my imagination and gave me a sense of wonder. They were one of the few avenues I had for connecting with my peers. It wasn't some waste of time that I regret when I look back as an adult.
I spent a lot of time hiding away in my room - up late on the internet, playing video games, reading books, listening to music - often the kind aimed at the alienated. I felt alone, like i didn't belong. Some of it was my personality, some of it was how my parents raised me. Some was how that was juxtaposed against the culture/environment i was raised into. My parents pushed a lot of sports and i grew out of it - fav…
I don't think it's helpful to "take pride in" introversion any more than it is to demonize it. Human connection is important, and so are many solitary activities. They aren't mutually-exclusive. And each of them can take many different forms.
Re: China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week
#514I 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?
Honestly, I wish I could delete at least half the comments here, including yours. It's as if the moment somebody mentions "government", the majority of HN that is American goes "bu-bu-but it's authoritarian!!!!" and cries about freedom. It's ridiculous.
The CCP is an authoritarian government. Yes. Is this being proposed in the US? No. Why all the whining and insane amount of pearl-clutching then?
Frankly, I was hoping to see more discussion about the (potential) effects of (excessive) gaming or the potential/unforeseen consequences of the ban, but apparently people here seem to go braindead the moment China, government or freedom is mentioned. It feels like I'm back on Facebook or Reddit again. Has the level of discourse really become that much worse on HN over the years?
Re: China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week
#515Earlier 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.
Temporary and mild authoritarian measures during a once-in-a-century pandemic make complete sense, even to very libertarian people. The U.S. has a track record of such measures being temporary, such as the much more extreme measures taken during WW2. Comparing this kind of thing to what China is doing is drawing a false equivalency. There is no legitimate comparison to be made.
LOL at people still thinking any of this is "temporary" or it will stay "mild". You're looking at stratification of society a year from now where anyone whose mandatory booster shot is older than 6 months can't participate, you must quadruple mask and wear a buttplug (farts spread covid too, you know), and you can't complain on FB or anywhere else about any of this because you'll get banned not just from FB but from everywhere, and lose your job, too.
Re: China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week
#516I 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?
Most people assume governments are benevolent. The rest are bots and/or promoting a political agenda.
Re: China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week
#517Talk about a capacity planning pain for the game companies. Your entire Of course there are solutions like scheduled auto-scaling but still, I guarantee that's going to cause some outages at least in the beginning.
Actually it sounds great - imagine the savings!
Re: China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week
#518Earlier 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"
I think it's more a response to two decades of corporations having free rein to exploit kids (and adults honestly but I understand such a policy would be less palatable). We've known since forever that the only solution would be government intervention since the market will never correct a dopamine lever and just .. nothing happened because it's profitable.
It's honestly nice to see a not totally incompetent government try a novel policy with good intentions. It's welcome break from the firehose of our own government making policies that seem to only target the poor and minorities.
Re: China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week
#519Earlier quoted context omitted.
Physically abusing your child by chaining them to the radiator is not a parenting decision. Providing lunch at something the child is required to be at by law is not a parenting decision. Requiring annual physicals is not a parenting decision, nor a health care decision. However, requiring a specific treatment is both. Alcohol consumption is a grey area, and a cultural choice the country has made. Why not make the dr…
A parents' can ask their kid to limit video game time, but can't have the video gaming industry to enforce it. A national government can. That's the issue. And if a parent really feels their kids deserve more video game time, they can always lend their own account to their kids, which would disable the mechanism, that simple.
The equivalent of regulating video game playing times for children would be regulating when a child gets to have their favourite dessert, when they get to go out to meet their friends etc. These are all highly context-dependent individual parenting decisions that the government should have very little say in. Especially in the form of rules like restricting play time to 8 PM on Weekends.
The government can ask video game industry to provide enforcement mechanisms in the form of parental controls, which incidentally are quite widely adopted by most tech companies without government intervention in the West.
Re: China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week
#520> Gaming companies will be barred from providing services to minors in any form outside the stipulated hours and must ensure they have put real-name verification systems in place, said the regulator, which oversees the country's video games market.
Those critical of the Chinese government should take a look in the mirror. Governments around the world, including those in the US, routinely impose restrictions on minors' ability to access online content. These laws are even structured in a similar way: hold the service providers accountable for monitoring use.
> "Teenagers are the future of our motherland," Xinhua quoted an unnamed NPPA spokesperson as saying. "Protecting the physical and mental health of minors is related to the people's vital interests, and relates to the cultivation of the younger generation in the era of national rejuvenation."
It's a favorite tactic of authoritarians everywhere: "Just think of the children!" First get a foothold by selling the thing as protecting children. In the US, we have two other options: terrorism and drugs. With the precedent set, expand the policy and watch opponents scramble to find a foothold.