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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

#711

Post by whatevertrevor »

joshschreuder wrote: post #692
lhorie wrote: post #687

China thinks that video games (specifically, the online variety) are harmful enough to children that it needs to be regulated at a federal level and children's exposure to games should be restricted. But here's the thing: We on the west do exactly the same thing for things like cigarettes, alcohol and gambling. The motivations behind all those restrictions are even similar (largely related to children's health/well-b…

I don’t agree that the restrictions are objectively similar. Cigarettes, alcohol, and gambling all have very well researched and understood physical and psychological problems over decades. I’m not aware of any such research done into the effects of playing video games more than three hours per week (though would be interested to read it), so there’s a good chance that this is more than “government looking after the…

Not to mention dumping video games into blanket "addictive gambling" is a very tenuous argument. Plenty of games that don't have lootboxes, require creative problem solving that can be played for hours on end with socialization elements mixed in too.

I'm really shocked by the somewhat puritanical take on video games at hacker news of all places.

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

#712

Post by MisterBastahrd »

I don't think it's useful or productive to go that far.

But I do think everyone would be better off if any game with a cash shop tied to randomness (loot boxes) or an in-game mechanic tied to randomness that can be exacerbated with cash shop purchases (Black Desert Online's gear improvement mechanic being a good example) be limited to those who are of gambling age.

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

#713

Post by danudey »

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…

My 6yo son really, really wanted to play Breath of the Wild. He loves Zelda, my wife loves Zelda, my best friend's girlfriend is over the moon with Zelda, etc. I always played Link in Mario Kart, to the point where, when he was 2 or 3, he was in Best Buy with my wife and saw a Breath of the Wild Switch case and said "is daddy!"

Of course, after a few requests a year and a bit ago, my wife had to give him an ultimatum: "I'm not going to come over here every time there's words. If you want to play this game, you have to read it yourself."

Apparently, it worked; he's about to go into Grade 2 but already has incredibly strong reading skills, including about a grade 2.5 reading level in French (we're English-speakers but he's in French immersion).

I didn't like how much Switch he was playing last year when the pandemic started and schools closed, but he wouldn't have learned to read nearly as fast if it weren't for Breath of the Wild. He seems to be well ahead of his classmates, and he's only getting stronger (and more independent as a result) as time goes by.

We're pretty particular about what games he plays, but the ones he's interested in typically have a substantial amount of reading involved (compared to, say, Doom when I was a teenager).

I'm excited that he'll be able to (if not willing to) play my old favorites; Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, and Secret of Mana, to name a few. I guess we'll see if he's interested.

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

#714

Post by mjn »

techdragon wrote: post #81
eunos wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's limited to the online game because the check is on server side rather than client (console/phone) side since it utilizes national ID data you provide when registering.

Do you have a source for that? From the article it sounds like the expectation is that all games should be implementing mechanisms to limit this. But that could just be poor reporting by Reuters ( not unsurprising for a breaking foreign government regulation change like this )

The Xinhua article on it (which I think is fairly authoritative) is clearer that it applies only to online games: http://www.news.cn/english/2021-08/30/c_1310157673.htm

Specifically,

> Online game providers can only offer one-hour services to minors from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, as well as on official holidays, according to the document made public on Monday.

> [...]

> The official said that parents and minors can decide on by themselves how long the children will play other games that are conducive to minors' growth, except online games.

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

#715

Post by whatevertrevor »

grecy wrote: post #691
Ajedi32 wrote: post #664

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, in my opinion. If a law like this were passed in the United States I'd be vocally campaigning to get the law repealed and the people who voted for it replaced in the next election. Sadly, the Chinese people don't have that option, which only makes the situation that much worse.

Do you vocally campaign to repeal the law that bans under 18s from consuming alcohol and cigarettes? Do you vocally campaign to repeal the law that prevents you buying and using asbestos in their buildings? Do you vocally campaign to repeal the law that prevents you from buying and owning an anti-aircraft missile system? Our democracies have plenty of laws about things we're not allowed to do. Some of them are for ou…

And there's no definitive evidence that playing any video game for more than 3 hours a week is in conflict with our good or the good of the society.

Not all regulations are born equal and some of them are definitely not worth fighting against.

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

#716

Post by ahallock »

I get that China is authoritarian, so I'm not even going to argue about that, but even if you agree with the premise, three hours seems to be swinging too far in the other direction. Do they enforce the same rule with other entertainment? What about board games or MTG? And it's not like movies are much different, other than being passive. Actually, passive entertainment might be worse.

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

#717

Post by welshwelsh »

victor106 wrote: post #151
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…

The feelings you (I have the same feelings about his as you do) have about this are at an individual level. State mandating how much time someone should spend doing a particular activity is a totally different topic. Even though I agree with the overall intention of this rule/law I vehemently oppose a state imposing such restrictions.

I have mixed feelings about whether or not restricting a child's video game usage is a good idea.

However, I think that the state imposing these restrictions is vastly superior to having parents impose the same restrictions. The amount of time a kid is allowed to play games should not be related to what family they happen to be part of or which parents they happen to have.

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

#718

Post by user123456780 »

toxik wrote: post #703
perlgeek wrote: post #683

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just limiting to three hours a week, but to three particular hours a week. Feels even more Draconian to me.

Imagine the thundering herd problems you experience when all of your users have the same three hour time slots.

I'd like this to be honest (from an infrastructure point of view). If the time is known for an influx of traffic I can prepare for that.

I currently look after a system which gets random spikes of traffic thats critical to serve. Which means I more or less need to run a huge amount of redundant servers 24 hours a day incase there is a spike at 2am.

We have horizontal scaling but our traffic has little lead time.

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

#719

Post by nearbuy »

bogwog wrote: post #702
lhorie wrote: post #687

China thinks that video games (specifically, the online variety) are harmful enough to children that it needs to be regulated at a federal level and children's exposure to games should be restricted. But here's the thing: We on the west do exactly the same thing for things like cigarettes, alcohol and gambling. The motivations behind all those restrictions are even similar (largely related to children's health/well-b…

> It's a big double standard to call their flavor of restrictions "authoritarian", while being ok with (or even strongly in favor of) our flavor of restrictions, even though the two are objectively similar in nature. Our restrictions came about through a democratic process (example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Minimum_Drinking_Age_... ), not because our supreme leader decided he knows what's best for us. N…

> Our restrictions came about through a democratic process

A democratic process where most of the people affected weren't allowed to vote.

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

#720

Post by beloch »

>Previously, China had limited the length of time under-18s could play video games to 1.5 hours on any day and three hours on holidays under 2019 rules.

How effective/strict has enforcement of the previously existing time limits been?

If time limits haven't been hard to circumvent or punishments for doing so severe, most kids would have routinely flouted the rules. Video games are quite the carrot.

It would be interesting if, by feebly enforcing these time limits, a totalitarian government would willingly commit the blunder of passing a law that trains children to disobey the state.

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