China Limits Video Games to Three Hours a Week

[RandySF]

“China has a new rule for the country’s hundreds of millions of young gamers: No videogames during the school week, and one hour a day on Fridays, weekends and public holidays,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“China on Monday issued strict new measures aimed at curbing what authorities describe as youth videogame addiction, which they blame for a host of societal ills, including distracting young people from school and family responsibilities.”


https://politicalwire.com/2021/08/30/china-limits-video-games-to-three-hours-a-week/

[Champp]

1. That'll show those little whippersnappers who's The Boss

For sure

[treestar]

2. How are they going to enforce this?

[Klaralven]

3. Via limitations on accounts of online gaming companies.

Offline, I don't believe they can.

[treestar]

4. The government can control that

Could the US do that outside of the obvious constitutional problems.

It would be strange if by being a tyranny, they could end up with smarter kids!

[Klaralven]

5. It would be a political non-starter in the US

China’s National Press and Publication Administration has released a notice imposing limits on online gaming for minors. On September 1st, video game companies will have to restrict gaming time to three hours a week — from 8 PM to 9 PM on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

With this new set of restrictions, Chinese authorities want to tackle addition to online games. According to the National Press and Publication Administration, online gaming has an impact on both the physical and mental health of minors.

In order to implement those time limits, game companies will have to leverage a real name-based registration system. In 2018, Tencent started using this system to limit playtime on Honor of Kings, a widely popular mobile game.

Back then, limits weren’t as strict though as children up to aged 12 could play one hour per day, and up to two hours per day for children between 13 and 18. At the time, authorities were concerned about worsening myopia among minors.

During the signup flow, users have to go through an ID verification system, which means that you can only have one account associated with your real name. Regulators will regularly check whether gaming companies comply with local regulation.

https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/30/china-restricts-kids-online-gaming-to-three-hours-a-week/

[Irish_Dem]

10. That is Beijing's goal. To produce a world class educational system.

Wealthy Chinese parents have been sending their kids to elite American boarding schools and colleges.
But they come back to China with a lot of American style expectations. Not working out well for Beijing.
They need to school their kids in country.

Also China is going to become a superpower and it needs world class educational facilities to achieve that goal.

[LeftInTX]

13. I couldn't with my son...

I did buy Net Nanny and installed it on his computers..LOL

He was pissed and a college student at the time....
His first report card in college was bad and he was there on a full ride...
That's how bad gaming can get..

He managed to keep his scholarship and ended up designing a huge petro valve for a company in China..(He works in the US for a US company, but just thought I would through China in there. The company sent him there as part of the project)

[Ohio Joe]

8. There are a couple of ways...

As mentioned, online gaming is pretty easy by regulating the online gaming companies. Many, many games require an online connection to play these days, even if you want to play single player. Another way is having mandatory facial recognition added to games:

https://findbiometrics.com/tencent-uses-facial-recognition-limit-kids-video-game-time-china-071205/

There is also an article in the NYT but it requires a sub:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/08/business/video-game-facial-recognition-tencent.html

This... Like most software solutions, can be gotten around fairly easily.

[Irish_Dem]

9. Pressure on the big tech companies who are using facial recognition software

among other strategies. Chinese kids were using their parent's accounts to get around the restrictions.
Now the kids will have to scan in their pictures and the gaming companies will monitor them.

ETA Beijing is not going to reveal all the surveillance technology they have at their disposal to monitor its citizens.
It has a long history of keeping tabs on them.

[dalton99a]

6. The next edict will be about housekeeping and personal hygiene

[honest.abe]

7. Aside from the obvious personal freedoms abuse, this will probably have a positive effect.

Gaming is a huge waste of time for children and likely has significant impact on their education.

[cinematicdiversions]

14. Gaming is much better for kids than watching television

For example. Bit of a swing and a miss there with your broad attack.

[LanternWaste]

15. Who in fact, argued it's not better than television?

No one? Merely an inference on your part?

Examples don't work if they are not part of the set or subset.

Swing and a miss, part II... like asserting medical masks and hijabs are the same.

Keep trying.

[honest.abe]

16. That's like saying alcohol is better than cocaine.

[ripcord]

12. It won't happen here

It was ridiculous enough having the PRMC with their Filthy 15 demanding warning labels be put on albums.

[LiberatedUSA]

17. The smart ones will have older systems in their homes.

This is why I miss the good days of Atari, Intellivision and then Nintendo and all the systems up to PS2. You aren’t required to be online with those systems. There is nothing to shut down. They would have to physically come to your home and take your games.

But it is China, they probably would.