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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

#541

Post by beaunative »

nsxwolf wrote: post #494
beaunative wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That simple? Until they decide to make it a felony to evade this system in that way.

I mean that's just a prejudice false target, right now it's just a departmental policy with effect only to businesses.

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

#542

Post by azernik »

javajosh wrote: post #168

The restriction is specifically "online games". Not offline games. Which is interesting because it implies that offline games are somehow less addictive - but in my experience, offline games can be very engaging, too. But perhaps it's in a more wholesome, problem-solving way? It's kinda impressive that the CCP can make decisions that affect 1B+ humans like this, overnight. I hope it's the right thing to do, for the k…

"Online games" only for two reasons:

1. Online games are easier to restrict. Centralized servers, corporations with addresses and bank accounts, &c

2. Online games are a political threat. The Chinese government worries not just about "political" organizing, but about any movement or activity that gets people in the habit of collective action and mass communication.

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

#543

Post by Ekaros »

doomleika wrote: post #403
S_A_P wrote: post #347

So secures western dominance in eSports competitions. Like everything in life computer games are diverse enough that they can be harmful/predatory to high/mid level programming. I struggle to keep my son from gaming all of his free time away, but he also has learned Lua and C# to a pretty large degree doing this stuff and I cant be too mad about that. This weekend we are going to put together his first gaming rig fro…

I fail to see removing one from eSport scene damages the productivity of a country, if not increase it. eSports are pretty much a negative to the country as a whole. Gaming company use it as ad and sell the illusion to make big bucks. Yes, you could have the next Faker in your country. So what? for every international pro you create there's 100s more kids wasted their youth on a pipe dream where their time could be u…

Just like sports, esports can support only so many coaches and managers. If not sufficiently manage career the players might even be successful but still end up on nothing after a few years of playing a popular game.

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

#544

Post by docmars »

godelski wrote: post #311
murph-almighty wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. Actually though this is a fucking big brother atrocity of a policy that people will inevitably circumvent and the government will pick and choose when to enforce.

Except the people aren't our enemy. We're worried about an authoritarian government harming our friends.

My initial (and final) interpretation was:

1. The people being enforced will find ways around these laws, naturally because it's considered unreasonable and overreaching in some regards.

2. In doing so, the government will selectively enforce these rules based on the limited amount of information or surveillance used to enforce these rules, so those who are busted for breaking them will pay the price, while others who are breaking the rules without getting caught will not pay the price.

I'm not trying to insult anyone's intelligence by breaking this down, but it's worth clarifying the scenarios.

While I agree with the GP's sentiment (it's very much overreaching into the private lives of its citizens who may wish to decide for themselves (or their family) how they spend their free, recreational time), the argument is no different from the fact that many DUI offenders never get caught while some do and pay the penalties.

I don't think this is a strong enough argument to mount a realistic protest against it, but it's a small factor that's unequivocally true -- many will get away with gaming longer than 3 hours anyway.

Gaming longer than 3 hours will give youth a good thrill at least. ;)

Jokes aside, this policy sucks.

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

#545

Post by occamrazor »

rank0 wrote: post #402
jpambrun wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alcohol pretty much universally prohibited for minors and nobody calls that authoritarian. Governments have responsibility for the wellbeing of citizen, even against themselves (mandatory seatbelts comes to mind). Meanwhile, gaming addiction can also be very destructive.

Lots of others ITT are expressing the same view, and I understand the logic behind it. Alcohol is an addictive, psychoactive, carcinogen. The difference between drugs and “online game time” is pretty stark from my perspective. The essence of your argument seems to be: “we already give up some control for other health-related regulations and online game time is no different.” I have to admit, drawing the exact line is…

The state mandates physical exercise for children in many countries (PE classes) and most people support it.

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

#546

Post by Animats »

The official announcement is more useful.[1] Google Translate does a decent job on this.

Some of these restrictions have been in place for a few years. The number of allowed hours are being reduced, and the technical standards for enforcement are being strengthened. A key part of this is "real name verification". That's been around in theory for years, but was not that effective. A tougher standard was introduced in September 2020.[2] Tencent and NetEase, the big game companies in China, already have it working. Some of it uses the national identity card, and some of it uses face recognition. Identity cards are only issued at age 16, so verifying kids is hard. There's a slow but steady tightening up on ID in China that's been underway for decades.

There's been a purge of unapproved online games. The Apple app store cooperated last year and deleted about 500 games. Unauthorized game publishers are being shut down.

[1] http://www.news.cn/2021-08/30/c_1127809919.htm

[2] https://www.scmp.com/abacus/games/article/3095509/chinas-rea...

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

#547

Post by beaunative »

blueblisters wrote: post #519
beaunative wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I doubt dessert is comparable to video games, I will eventually get full with desserts, but potentially unlimited time with video games.

The timeframe when a parents have a say in children's activity is already limited by compulsory k-12 schooling. What's the difference?

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

#548

Post by brundolf »

loudtieblahblah wrote: post #521
woah wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, it sounds like your current attitude is as extreme as your former one.

I spent 25 years online. I'm now 40 with a family of my own. I don't have the time in the day to find some happy center. I'm happy to cut out video games and wasting my time online except for the odd Hacker News break while I'm at work. The pendulum might be swinging, but i have a lot less free time now than I used to and I chose to use it more precisely and with more conscious intent rather than just letting the hou…

If they didn't enrich you then they didn't enrich you, but don't overly project your own experience onto others. Many (not all) video games have been enriching and/or healing experiences for me personally.

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

#550

Post by m4rtink »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #252
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…

> a glass of wine with every meal There's an apt outcome of the analogy too. It's likely the grapejuice is better for you before fermenting it, oh and the grapes themselves are better for you than removing all the fiber and the physical bulk that can help satiety. I feel the same way about games. They may have positive effects over a null control (like sitting and staring at the paint on the wall), but reading a phys…

It's only quite recently that we can get fresh grapes off season, that's why people used to drink wine with food - it stays consumable for much longer thanks to the alcohol it contains.
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