China turns on your game timer for those under 18

[suits]

Quote

No playing video games after 10 p.m. No more than 90 minutes of gaming on weekdays. Want add-ons like virtual weapons and costumes? Keep it to $57 a month.

The Chinese government has released new rules aimed at curbing video game addiction among young people, a problem that top officials believe is to blame for a rise in nearsightedness and poor academic performance across a broad swath of society.

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The regulations, announced by the National Press and Publication Administration on Tuesday, ban users younger than 18 from playing games between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. They are not permitted to play more than 90 minutes on weekdays and three hours on weekends and holidays.

The limits are the government’s latest attempt to rein in China’s online gaming industry, one of the world’s largest, which generates more than $33 billion in annual revenue and draws hundreds of millions of users.

Going to be interesting to see what this does to the political climate in China. Any government setting restrictions on you during your free time and how you spend your money is never going to be a popular thing.

 

There is something to say for video game addiction. Maybe it'll work?

 

Source 1

 

The enforcement of this ban is going to be through some sort of online system. 

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Chinese officials will also require everyone to register accounts for online games using their real name and phone number, which will help government entities to regulate playing time

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a government statement said. "We are also going to gradually perfect and enrich the functions of the identification system, to achieve gaming time data sharing across platforms, so we could know and therefore restrict the total time every minor spends on gaming across platforms."

It is unknown how they will enforce the ban for offline games, and I couldn't find the consequences of breaking the rules. 

 

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It is not clear how offline single-player games factor into the new guidelines.

Source 2

[Bitter]

They'll have to go outside and take up gambling in the streets like their parents and grandparents did!

[williamcll]

I remember how multiple kids have died after spending too much time on games. 

Interestingly the source news mentions that this is only limited to online games, and not much on single or hard copy games (e.g. steam or GoG). No mention of when this law will be put into effect either. 关于防止未成年人沉迷网络游戏的通知 translates to "regarding the prevention of underage persons addicted to online video games notice" so implementing this will take a lot longer than some will expect (I know that global times mentioned that some lawmakers have been thinking of this rules since 2007, where there is instead game rewards are reduced overtime to curb addiction)

[Bcat00]

Some might say this is too extreme but there are strong cases in China pushing the government to pass this law. People dying in Internet cafes being the strongest one

[Bruno_A]

I like this, chinese players will not be as skilled, now. Kidding aside, I wonder if this will work, since VPNs are a thing and it will not work for offline games. It should be the parents' job, anyway, to limit the amount of hours their kid spends playing games. But even then, just simply taking their gaming away, might not fix the issue. Speaking from experience, as a kid, I was uninterested in school. I had a laptop that I was using a lot of the time and, when I got bad results, which was not a surprise, my mom would take the laptop. I still wouldn't study. It's a matter of interest as well. Fortunately, I grew up, realised education was crucial, studied and landed a good job in IT.

[Orangeator]

9 minutes ago, Bcat00 said:

Some might say this is too extreme but there are strong cases in China pushing the government to pass this law. People dying in Internet cafes being the strongest one

That comes down to personal responsibility and piss poor parenting... This is not the governments role to step in. Total over reach.

[Velcade]

4 minutes ago, Orangeator said:

This is not the governments role to step in. Total over reach.

Don't confuse your freedoms with China's "freedoms".  The Chinese government already controls the net.

 

 

[Okjoek]

I kinda liked what they did in Ready Player One where they banned the gaming on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

[samcool55]

Perfect example of the extreme/hardcore people ruining it for everyone.

[paddy-stone]

1 hour ago, Tony Tony Chopper said:

 

Not everyone has friends and family some of us are

Weeping Scrotums? 

 

J/K

[Orangeator]

1 hour ago, samcool55 said:

Perfect example of the extreme/hardcore people ruining it for everyone.

Its a perfect example of a few people who failed their jobs as parents and now everyone else suffers. Even as powerful as the Chinese government is, they still shouldn't have stepped in. It's unnecessary.

[samcool55]

6 minutes ago, Orangeator said:

Its a perfect example of a few people who failed their jobs as parents and now everyone else suffers. Even as powerful as the Chinese government is, they still shouldn't have stepped in. It's unnecessary.

While this is true, stuff like this (strict rules for everybody because of a few idiots) is not always the fault of the parents. Sometimes people that have been fine for decades can always end up taking a wrong path in life, doing stuff they shouldn't do and taking things too far and ruining something for everybody.

[Murasaki]

Way to go China!

[paddy-stone]

I think this is overstepping. If the people in question are diagnosed to have an addiction/mental illness, then those people should be helped, including the "punishment" if it's needed... but not at the expense of everyone else. Living in a nanny state myself, I understand the negative effect the overstepping and restricting people that can make their own decisions (adults), has on them.

In this case it is about minors, that the government shouldn't need to enforce strict exclusions on IMO. The parents themselves should be able to limit their children's activities... or at the very least have some kind of "opt-in" that the parents can sign up for instead of limiting all children with some kind of block that probably won't do the job anyway. There are always ways for parents to limit their children when it comes to electricals really IMO. If the children don't go by your rules, you take away their use of whatever it is, even if you have to restrict your own activities.. if it will help the children, don't you?

 

Child won't curb their use of video games, escalate the punishment:-

 

1. Ground them from something else they like... take away any money you normally give them.
2. Take away their devices if they still don't stop.
3. turn off the wifi.
4. unplug the router and hide it/lock it up.

There MUST be some way of punishing the child that they would have to take notice of... including the destruction of property if you must... as long as it's technically YOUR property that YOU bought. If it's the childs property, then restrict wifi as above. There must be something that YOU pay for that can be limited/removed from the children's use if you are a parent.

[Orangeator]

31 minutes ago, samcool55 said:

have been fine for decades

This is true, in other cases. In this case, it's only applicable to those who are under the age of 18... Aka, parents are at fault.

[williamcll]

14 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

I think this is overstepping. If the people in question are diagnosed to have an addiction/mental illness, then those people should be helped, including the "punishment" if it's needed... but not at the expense of everyone else. Living in a nanny state myself, I understand the negative effect the overstepping and restricting people that can make their own decisions (adults), has on them.

In this case it is about minors, that the government shouldn't need to enforce strict exclusions on IMO. The parents themselves should be able to limit their children's activities... or at the very least have some kind of "opt-in" that the parents can sign up for instead of limiting all children with some kind of block that probably won't do the job anyway. There are always ways for parents to limit their children when it comes to electricals really IMO. If the children don't go by your rules, you take away their use of whatever it is, even if you have to restrict your own activities.. if it will help the children, don't you?

 

Child won't curb their use of video games, escalate the punishment:-

 

1. Ground them from something else they like... take away any money you normally give them.
2. Take away their devices if they still don't stop.
3. turn off the wifi.
4. unplug the router and hide it/lock it up.

There MUST be some way of punishing the child that they would have to take notice of... including the destruction of property if you must... as long as it's technically YOUR property that YOU bought. If it's the childs property, then restrict wifi as above. There must be something that YOU pay for that can be limited/removed from the children's use if you are a parent.

I know some places have training camps that are designed to get your kids to stop being addicted to video games and instead do more mundane activities such as sports and books.

 

Here's a Korean one for example:

 

[HarryNyquist]

16 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

-snip-

Some parents just shouldn't be parents.

 

Also, this is China we're talking about. The government stepping in and ruining everything for everyone is kind of how they've operated for years.

[paddy-stone]

1 minute ago, HarryNyquist said:

Some parents just shouldn't be parents.

 

Also, this is China we're talking about. The government stepping in and ruining everything for everyone is kind of how they've operated for years.

Yep, same here in the UK.

[suicidalfranco]

how nice to have the government infiltrate every facet of people's life.

We need more of this and to push it further. For the greater good.

[Arika]

In other news, big game companies have decided there is still a huge market for off-line, single player games

[mr moose]

Never ceases to amaze how people just blame parents.  Clearly that's the easy answer and doesn't require people to get invested in the problem.  Don;t like whats happening in society, must be the parents, don't like whats happening in schools, must be the parents.  Parents aren't allowed to parent anymore,  no one realizes this, but physical discipline is not allowed, raising your voice is not allowed,  taking things away is not allowed.  We have entered a world of precious snowflakes and all forms of parenting is now singled out as abuse of one description or another.  And the biggest issue here is all the finger pointing is done by squirts who are neither parents nor have formal education on the topic. 

 

How about if you are not a parent you don't post your opinions like they are undeniable facts.

 

 

 

 

[Flying Sausages]

LAUGHS IN AMERICA

[Donut417]

11 hours ago, bruny06 said:

I like this, chinese players will not be as skilled, now. Kidding aside, I wonder if this will work, since VPNs are a thing an

VPN's are probably blocked by China. Keep in mind China is very controlling over their internet services. They block content all the time and if VPN's are not blocked now, its only a mtter of time.

[dizmo]

Haha, what? I don't think you have any grasp of how politics work in China at all. This will have no effect at all. In China, it's do as you're told, ok boss.

I'm glad I'm aging now, and won't be around for China's rise to power in the future.

 

10 hours ago, Tegos said:

Slightly unrelated but I remember this case from a good few years ago where a man in China killed his friend because he borrowed a rare weapon from him in an MMO and then sold it.

In a country where it's better to kill someone you might accidentally hit with your car than offer aid, this doesn't surprise me at all.

8 hours ago, paddy-stone said:

Yep, same here in the UK.

The UK is far from China.

3 hours ago, mr moose said:

Never ceases to amaze how people just blame parents.  Clearly that's the easy answer and doesn't require people to get invested in the problem.  Don;t like whats happening in society, must be the parents, don't like whats happening in schools, must be the parents.  Parents aren't allowed to parent anymore,  no one realizes this, but physical discipline is not allowed, raising your voice is not allowed,  taking things away is not allowed.  We have entered a world of precious snowflakes and all forms of parenting is now singled out as abuse of one description or another.  And the biggest issue here is all the finger pointing is done by squirts who are neither parents nor have formal education on the topic. 

 

How about if you are not a parent you don't post your opinions like they are undeniable facts.

Physical discipline doesn't really work. Thats already been proven in dogs.

I haven't seen anyone get blasted for raising their voice to a child.

[Founders]

10 hours ago, Tegos said:

Slightly unrelated but I remember this case from a good few years ago where a man in China killed his friend because he borrowed a rare weapon from him in an MMO and then sold it.

So... He stole it then...

 

8 hours ago, Orangeator said:

This is true, in other cases. In this case, it's only applicable to those who are under the age of 18... Aka, parents are at fault.

Not always true as a legitimate addiction has nothing to do with parenting. If the child wants to do something they'll do their best to make it happen. Parenting is a critical factor but it's far from the only one that leads to potential issues.  

 

8 hours ago, HarryNyquist said:

Some parents just shouldn't be parents.

 

Also, this is China we're talking about. The government stepping in and ruining everything for everyone is kind of how they've operated for years.

Both fair points

 

4 hours ago, mr moose said:

Never ceases to amaze how people just blame parents.  Clearly that's the easy answer and doesn't require people to get invested in the problem.  Don;t like whats happening in society, must be the parents, don't like whats happening in schools, must be the parents.  Parents aren't allowed to parent anymore,  no one realizes this, but physical discipline is not allowed, raising your voice is not allowed,  taking things away is not allowed.  We have entered a world of precious snowflakes and all forms of parenting is now singled out as abuse of one description or another.  And the biggest issue here is all the finger pointing is done by squirts who are neither parents nor have formal education on the topic. 

 

How about if you are not a parent you don't post your opinions like they are undeniable facts.

You're not wrong in that a child is directly effected deeply by all of their surroundings, the parents being at the forefront. There are many ways of disciplining/rewarding your children that doesn't involve physical abuse, which isn't an effective means anyway. There's absolutely nothing wrong with raising your voice, it's a healthy way to express yourself. There's nothing wrong with taking something away as long as it's not a necessity. You have a right to raise your child as you see fit, not everyone will agree with your practices but they're entitled to their opinions as long as they're not forcing it on others (which some do, sadly).