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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

#51

Post by SonicScrub »

imbnwa wrote: post #11

From the perpsective of someone who doesn't know too much details, China's ability to nope its way out of the social excesses of liberal capitalism is somewhat amazing here. I'm guessing they took a look at Korea and Japan's well-known issues with young men isolating themselves enabled by the high availability of online gaming and said "nah". Both of those countries are also experiencing widening gaps in hetero gende…

I can see what problem they are trying to avoid, but this is treating symptoms and not problems. Why do so many young men in Japan and Korea (and heck, the West too although to a lesser degree) retreat from society into ? Narrow culture ideas of what "success" is, and personal relationships being dependent on reaching that definition of "success"? Lack of meaning found in career? Inability to find meaning in things outside of your career because there is no work-life balance?

Video games are just a popular form of escapism. Limiting access will just drive people to other forms of escapism (potentially more dangerous ones) unless these underlying issues are solved.

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

#52

Post by brodouevencode »

omarhaneef wrote: post #30
brodouevencode wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> apart from restricting freedom? Do you need any more than that? From the western point of view this is the apex reason. EDIT: To add - it is true in the west that minors don't enjoy all the same freedoms as adults. However for most things those decisions are made by the parents and not the state.

We restrict a lot of freedoms for the under-18 crowd though. Purely in terms of freedom -- without arguing for any other pros and cons -- is this worse than mandatory school attendance, or not being able to vote, or take medical decisions for themselves, or whatever else kids cannot do these days.

The big difference is that those decisions are pushed to the parents and not the state. Minors are not fully mentally equipped to make some of the decisions that adults have the right/ability to make.

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

#54

Post by scythe »

The biggest problem with this legislation seems to be not its intended target (youth gaming), but the fact that, since it is likely to be very difficult to enforce and a lot of kids will try to break the rules, it opens up a wide opportunity for selective enforcement - $opposition_politician lets his kids game too much, $foreign_company has ineffective age verification for their online servers, et cetera.

With that said, I'm not surprised to find people in the West wondering what else we're going to do about "artificial addictions".

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

#55

Post by ihuman »

ddtaylor wrote: post #22

My understanding is that South Korea already does this to some extent with users having to be over 18 or having a Pro Gaming license to play after some hour. The result has not been that the vast majority of SK gamers promptly log off at said hour. The result has been the majority of them connect to non SK servers immediately at said hour or use a friends account.

That law was abolished a few days ago https://www.engadget.com/south-korea-gaming-shutdown-law-end...

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

#57

Post by Xplune13 »

allannienhuis wrote: post #45
brodouevencode wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> apart from restricting freedom? Do you need any more than that? From the western point of view this is the apex reason. EDIT: To add - it is true in the west that minors don't enjoy all the same freedoms as adults. However for most things those decisions are made by the parents and not the state.

Not saying this is a good thing (in fact I think it's a silly rule), but: kids in the western world have their 'freedoms' restricted all of the time. There are plenty of things that kids can't participate in or see. Those are mandated by various levels of the state, for the safety/benefit of the child (ostensibly). And parents are constantly adjusting the things their kids can or can't do, often requiring kids to ask…

The main problem here is shoehorning of government between people's lives. Every parent has their own way of doing things. Some parents may allow kids to play longer, some may not but government should not be involved in this matter.

I don't think this is a case of "because..... communists". This move is rightly criticized in my opinion.

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

#58

Post by rolobio »

brundolf wrote: post #50
rolobio wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably having a hard time thinking straight with all the piles of money around them?

Their massive, important new market for expansion just got a whole lot smaller

This only effects children. Plenty of room to expand into adults, for now.

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

#59

Post by thatguy0900 »

bserge wrote: post #23
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…

I haven't played a good game in nearly a decade. I used to play them for the story, then it all became too grindy, trainers became moneymakers (yeah I used cheats, sue me, I played for fun), everything needs a fking Internet connection and anticheat software that does god knows what. Kinda sad.

It's pretty easy to find free cheat engine tables for any single player game for free. Paid cheats are really multi-player things, where you really shouldn't be cheating anyway

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

#60

Post by mrfusion »

seattle_spring wrote: post #40
mrfusion wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like you’re agreeing with me?

Not at all, just curious if you're consistent. Maybe we should ban listening to "harmful" music? Hell, let's ban playing instruments all together. Unless you're playing Christian rock of course.

I’m against all restrictions. I guess my comment was confusing?

We could agree to disagree on whether we agree. Lol.

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