China announces online gaming restrictions for Chinese youth

[Polycount]

What just happened? China doesn't exactly have the greatest reputation when it comes to allowing its citizens significant levels of personal freedom, but for young Chinese gamers, the situation is about to get even worse. The country's government has announced a set of new "initiatives" aimed at preventing minors from "indulging" in online video games.

The six guidelines were announced in infographic form, and they're all written in Chinese -- since most reliable translation services are not yet able to transcribe images, credit goes to CNN for providing the information in plain English.

According to the outlet, the new rules will block Chinese youth (those under 18, specifically) from playing online games between the hours of 10pm and 8am; effectively creating a video game curfew. Further, under-18s will be restricted to a mere 90 minutes of online play per day on Monday through Friday, though this restriction is relaxed somewhat to three hours on weekends and "public holidays."

For more hardcore Chinese gamers, this restriction could prove to be quite frustrating, especially if they happen to be aspiring e-sports pros (an increasingly-popular career option in the modern era). Any professional Overwatch player will tell you that 90 minutes of practice per day is far from ideal if you want to hit the big leagues someday -- that also doesn't leave much time for "leisure" play.

Of course, it's worth noting that these rules only seem to apply to online games. This might be due to the difficulty associated with monitoring playtime in offline games, but it's difficult to say for sure. Regardless, if you're a Chinese teen who spends most of your gaming hours in titles like Skyrim, The Witcher 3, or The Outer Worlds, you might be in the clear.

Anyway, moving on. The new rules also reportedly aim to restrict the amount of money minors can spend on their favorite online games -- those between the ages of 8 and 16 can only add up to $29 to their digital gaming wallets every month, whereas older players (16-18) can put in about $57. Again, these restrictions don't seem to apply to the purchase of single-player or otherwise offline experiences.

The last few infographic items are not really rules at all, but vague plans for future video game regulation. For example, China aims to "strengthen" its supervision of the video game industry while also exploring the implementation of improved age verification systems.

Finally, the country wants to incentivize parents, teachers, and authorities in other social groups to establish "correct" online gaming habits and behaviors among young people.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/82662-china-announces-online-gaming-restrictions-chinese-youth.html

 

[TomSEA]

I don't see a problem with this. Asian countries struggle with video game addiction. Seems like not a week goes by where we hear of some guy in an Asian Internet cafe who drops dead because he didn't eat or drink for 48 straight hours while playing video games.

Restricting the amount of money spent makes total sense. And I especially like this part:

"Finally, the country wants to incentivize parents, teachers, and authorities in other social groups to establish "correct" online gaming habits and behaviors among young people." If parents can't control their kids online gaming habits, then maybe hanging a carrot on a stick in front of them will do the trick.

These rules seem to me to be no different than typical western city ordinances that restrict kids under 18 from running around raising hell after 10pm, or using their (stolen) parents credit cards to do whatever they want.

 

[toooooot]

That's good, but coming from controlling psychopaths, it is a joke

 

[Manya3084]

I don't see a problem with this. Asian countries struggle with video game addiction. Seems like not a week goes by where we hear of some guy in an Asian Internet cafe who drops dead because he didn't eat or drink for 48 straight hours while playing video games.

Restricting the amount of money spent makes total sense. And I especially like this part:

"Finally, the country wants to incentivize parents, teachers, and authorities in other social groups to establish "correct" online gaming habits and behaviors among young people." If parents can't control their kids online gaming habits, then maybe hanging a carrot on a stick in front of them will do the trick.

These rules seem to me to be no different than typical western city ordinances that restrict kids under 18 from running around raising hell after 10pm, or using their (stolen) parents credit cards to do whatever they want.

Can I read the Koran or the Bible instead of playing video games? Thanks china, I'll take myself to the "education" camp.

 

[quadibloc]

So Chinese youth will be studying hard in school, while American children fritter away their lives on video games! Obviously, the world is doomed!

Or, at least, some American politicians may think so, and attempts to restrict the amount of time young Americans spend on video games may be in our future.

 

[Evernessince]

So Chinese youth will be studying hard in school, while American children fritter away their lives on video games! Obviously, the world is doomed!

Or, at least, some American politicians may think so, and attempts to restrict the amount of time young Americans spend on video games may be in our future.

I don't think government regulation is a substitute for parenting. I also don't think you can enact restrictions on video game play time without sacrificing various civil liberties.

 

[Jules Mark II]

So... No more Chinese gold farmers?

 

[koblongata]

Speechless.

 

[Yynxs]

Well China just screwed up. It's one thing to restrict number of babies, invade Tibet, rape Uighur women after deliberately putting the pretty ones' husbands in camps, invade the South China Sea, buy Africa, pollute the rest of the Earth, but telling gamers they can't play? Revolution is in the air.

 

[Eldritch]

I don't see a problem with this. Asian countries struggle with video game addiction. Seems like not a week goes by where we hear of some guy in an Asian Internet cafe who drops dead because he didn't eat or drink for 48 straight hours while playing video games.

Restricting the amount of money spent makes total sense. And I especially like this part:

"Finally, the country wants to incentivize parents, teachers, and authorities in other social groups to establish "correct" online gaming habits and behaviors among young people." If parents can't control their kids online gaming habits, then maybe hanging a carrot on a stick in front of them will do the trick.

These rules seem to me to be no different than typical western city ordinances that restrict kids under 18 from running around raising hell after 10pm, or using their (stolen) parents credit cards to do whatever they want.

What the.....

So by your logic Government shall regulate aspects of our life as it knows better?
Why not stop people from spending money on frivolous stuff and make them save it for future in the specified investments.
Why not tell what you can eat and how much so as to protect your health.
Why not control your leisurely browsing which is a waste of time and replace it with mandatory exercise.
Why not select profession for you by govt based on your proficiencies rather than pursuing non productive carrers.
Why not dictate your bed time to you as people are getting so many heart diseases from late sleeping.
And so on......

You do see that no self respecting human being will like these restrictions, don't you?
We also possess brain. We have our own lives. Our lives have up and down. We have our own needs and desires. How on the earth Chinese govt thinks its fair for them to dictate these things.
Dystopia doesn't even begin to describe China.

 

[Shaitan]

Of course, as a normal human being, I want to be free to play whatever, whenever, as I am an adult. And I am responsible for my own time and energy spending.
However, the money cap imposed for a minor seems not only reasonable but doable and badly needed.
WHY? Because of microtransactions. Before the wave of greed generated by Activision/EA Games, we often heard of children paying thousands of dollars/Euro/whatever out of their parent's wallets for some non-returnable in-game shiny crap.
Other than that, it's each parent's duty to make sure that their precious children are NOT playing 24/7 and that every human being needs a balance between outdoor/indoor activities and that sport is key for healthy development.

 

[quadibloc]

Indeed, this is a very minor thing compared to the other misdeeds of this regime. But it's one more to add to the list, I suppose. If, in this case, it even is a misdeed. The only problem seems to be that they're going farther than they have to.

 

[quadibloc]

As long as they're over 18, there is still no problem.

 

[Uncle Al]

I would love to see a simple software tool that allowed the parents to limit play time with all games. Something directly coded into the game where the adult to access it remotely, set the time in minutes and hours per day it can be played, then have an alert txt back to the adult if there was an attempt to access the game beyond allowed playtime or attempt to by-pass that security .....

 

[kira setsu]

Not my country, who am I to judge?

although I'd open the weekend up for gaming as you please, a cap for online gaming through the week for minors honestly isnt that bad in my head.

and the money cap honestly sounds like a good idea, its sorta teaching a lesson in a strange way.

 

[havok585]

What the.....

So by your logic Government shall regulate aspects of our life as it knows better?
Why not stop people from spending money on frivolous stuff and make them save it for future in the specified investments.
Why not tell what you can eat and how much so as to protect your health.
Why not control your leisurely browsing which is a waste of time and replace it with mandatory exercise.
Why not select profession for you by govt based on your proficiencies rather than pursuing non productive carrers.
Why not dictate your bed time to you as people are getting so many heart diseases from late sleeping.
And so on......

You do see that no self respecting human being will like these restrictions, don't you?
We also possess brain. We have our own lives. Our lives have up and down. We have our own needs and desires. How on the earth Chinese govt thinks its fair for them to dictate these things.
Dystopia doesn't even begin to describe China.

Getting a sense of Gataca.

 

[sauri]

I don't think government regulation is a substitute for parenting.

Parenting is a too serious procedure to trust it to unsupervised amateurs. China will soon take care of that too.