The debate over whether playing too many video games is bad for your health is a decades-old struggle for parents, many of whom at this point were raised playing the very games they bemoan their children obsessing over. And now an entire nation is again taking strides to curb its children from playing too many games.
The communist nation of China is certainly known for strict social rules and a brutal grip on the virtual lives of its citizens. And according to a report, despite the nation being a hotbed of talent for competitive gaming it has further restricted the amount of time children can actually spend playing games in an attempt to increase discipline among the nation’s youth.
As the New York Times detailed on Monday, the decision limits the amount of time Chinese children can spend playing games in an effort to get rid of what are deemed “unhealthy cultural influences.”
Chinese children and teenagers are barred from online gaming on school days, and limited to one hour a day on weekend and holiday evenings, under government rules issued Monday.
The rules, released by the National Press and Publication Administration, tightened restrictions from 2019 aimed at what the government said was a growing scourge of online game addiction among schoolchildren. Under the old rules, players under the age of 18 were limited to no more than 90 minutes of gaming on weekdays and three hours a day on weekend.
Unhealthy influences or not, China is a huge hub of gaming, especially competitive gaming in titles like League of Legends. So the move to curb gaming in the country, especially to an hour on weekends and holidays, is particularly interesting. The news comes amid another online crackdown by Chinese internet censors of popular celebrities that teens created fandoms around, also citing the corrupting of youths. And despite the extremely lucrative nature of online gaming for those making games, it seems the pressure to find cultural conformity meant more than profits here.
And, unfortunately for children there, it was reportedly their parents who asked for further restrictions.
Parents had complained that was too generous and had been laxly enforced, the administration said. The new rule sets the permitted gameplay hour to 8 to 9 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The government said it would step up inspections to ensure that gaming companies were enforcing the restrictions.
“Recently many parents have reported that game addiction among some youths and children is seriously harming their normal study, life and mental and physical health,” the administration said in an online question-and-answer explanation about the new rules. Parents, it said, had demanded “further restrictions and reductions in the time provided for minors by online gaming services.”
Whether you believe the Chinese government about anything, including parents snitching on their gamer children, is entirely up to you. But it is certainly a vastly different approach to gaming in countries like the United States. While it seems parents are always trying to limit screen time for their children, one thing that’s clear is those limits are not coming from the United States government.
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