I saw a post here (https://lemmy.ml/post/1179679) about some Chinese kid spending USD 64k on video games and I read the news article and found myself down a rabbit hole.
https://www.techspot.com/news/98980-13-year-old-spent-64000-parents-money-mobile.html
China has long held a dim view of video games, calling them “electronic drugs” a few years ago. It only allows those under 18 to play online games for one hour, between 8 pm and 9 pm local time, on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays.
So basicaly, this article says that China (or more accurately the Chinese government) has a dim view of video games.
So I kept digging and found this article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/30/business/media/china-online-games.html
“I think this is the right policy,” she said. “It amounts to the state taking care of our kids for us.”
This phrase just screams “BAD PARENT” to me.
Why do you have to offload the responsibility of caring for your children to the government? You chose to bring them into the world, now you’re responsible for them.
Which brings me to my question… why does China’s government hate video games so much? Why would they want to impose such draconian restrictions on childrens’ free time?
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they dont hate video games, they hate multiplayer games and its effects on childrens/minors, china like japan and korea has had problems with minors getting very addicted to online games and living in online cafes https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/02/06/national/kyushu-gaming-addition-young-people/
now to you and me its looks kinda weird right, but you need to keep in mid that those regulations only target kids under 18, also it only affects online so a teen could play all Legend of zelda he wants but only 2 hours of games like league of legends or dota.
see it like how in the west they ban selling cigarettes to minors but people over 18 can buy as many as they can.
this article tries to explain why do they have a negative view over online games https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3156540/china-vs-video-games-why-beijing-stopped-short-gaming-ban-keeping
Ah, so it’s specifically multiplayer games that the Chinese government doesn’t like. I do wonder if they’ll ever start imposing restrictions on singleplayer offline games.
Just wanna suggest anyone reading this post that they should read “the govt of China” anytime they come across “China”. We in the Anglophone world love being hysterically scared/detesting of “the Chinese”, and our governments love it.
True, although that’s not just limited to “China”. Basically every country is treated as a homogenous block of people which is not that great for discussions.
Most of the time when they say “China” they forgot to add
's governmentto the end of itI mean, the government of a nation represent the will of the people and what they desire the nation to be like do they not? When they don’t, they eithert get voted out or removed by force.
This is a common misconception, but fully understandable one. If you look into political theory, one of the first things you discover is that all governments – whether they call themselves “democratic” or not – are, before anything else, at war with the people they claim to represent.
The “people” – not rival foreign states – are the first group against which a state of at war with, whether the state in question is a monarchy, a republic, a dictatorship, a plutocracy or something else.
Are you complaining about a government reigning in the worst aspects of video game culture? This is exactly what a government should be doing, regulating an industry that can be extremely addictive if left unchecked.
Another article on the topic
“The 2019 regulations also introduced spending limits for children, which have remained unchanged. Players between the ages of 8 and 16 can spend up to 200 yuan per month in a game and those between 16 and 18 years old can spend up to 400 yuan.”
"Also, while the time restrictions apply to all types of video games, not all games are created equal in the eyes of authorities. Two super genres of games have emerged in China based in part on government preferences: danji and wangluo.
Danji means single device, but the term is used for any game that does not need an internet connection (these titles can still be played with other people online). Wangluo means internet games, or those that require a server to be played such as massively multiplayer online role-playing games like World of Warcraft.
The main difference where the government is concerned is that wangluo games are considered addictive while danji games are considered athletic, according to Szablewicz, a distinction that aligns with China’s esports ambitions but that does not appear as relevant in the mobile age. The Chinese government officially labelled dianzi jingji, or esports, as the country’s 99th professional competitive sport in 2003."
I do fully understand why China has spending limits and I actually fully agree with it. After reading the articles you linked and what everyone else has been saying, while I still don’t agree with the time limits, I now understand why China would want to put them in place. Every country and government is different and they’re going to have their own ways of dealing with problems even if others may disagree.
While being illegal in theory, China still has 9-9-6 in most of the workforce. That means parents work from 9 am to 9pm 6 times a week. Biggest employer of China such as Foxconn make people sleep at factory floor from Monday to Saturday.
This creates an environment where children basically grow with playing games. Most people in China does not own gaming computers or consoles. People play P2W mobile games with real gambling and gacha mechanics. Gambling addiction is insanely big problem so Chinese government is trying to bud the problem out of it is roots. Henceforth children gets limited screen time.
“I think this is the right policy,” she said. “It amounts to the state taking care of our kids for us.”
This phrase just screams “BAD PARENT” to me.
Why do you have to offload the responsibility of caring for your children to the government? You chose to bring them into the world, now you’re responsible for them.ngl I kind of agree with them, why shouldn’t the government help parents look after their children? The entire purpose of a government should be to support the people who live in the country.
“electronic drugs”
I guess they’re doing a war on drugs then…
I think it’s a “cultural wars” kind of thing, but the Chinese version of it. They envision a strong, proud, nationalist society, and kids laying around playing video games when they could be working towards becoming the ideal citizen of tomorrow.
I guess they primarily mean smartphone games, not Xbox, ps5 or whatever.
And I think this is more justified. While everyone needs a smartphone today you will always have it close and be tempted to play games.
The first article directly justifies all the restrictions china put in place and calls for even stricter restrictions, let’s hope the CPC takes more actions to prevent more of it’s youth slipping into degeneracy
Authoritarians really don’t like when it they can’t control communication, which definitely includes creative expression in media. Games fall under that umbrella so the government is going to do what it needs to in order to keep enough control over the media in question.
The “reasons” why aren’t really important and will be figured out and thrown around as needed. But it really just comes down to control.
This is the true reason. Most people don’t know enough about the country and have a naive view on the gov’s actions and the reasoning behind them. They downvoted your comment because of this without realizing how close it is to the truth.
Source: am a Chinese who took a risk in leaving this comment
