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.
The new regulation, unveiled by the National Press and Publication Administration, will ban minors, defined as those under 18 years of age, from playing online videogames entirely between Monday and Thursday. On the other three days of the week, and on public holidays, they will be only permitted to play between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m.
So teenagers will be allowed to play online videogames for three hours per week, and that's it.¹
This is what I think of as "guy in a bar" leadership: No nuance, no listening to stupid sociology papers, just a lashing out at stuff that "everyone knows" is wrong with the country these days. It's what Donald Trump wished he could do, but couldn't.
Anyway, we'll see how this works out. Maybe it will save China. Maybe it will spawn a huge black market in videogames. Or maybe it will spark a rebellion among the nation's teenagers. China has an awful lot of kids who don't really have much else to do if you take their videogames away.
¹Except for the children of high-ranking officials, I assume.
"Or maybe it will spark a rebellion among the nation's teenagers."
Something along these lines for sure. If you want to make kids feel alienated and hate the government, take away their video games. This seems like the sort of ham-fisted thing USSR would have done in the 80s.
If they try, they will find themselves in a real life 3rd person shooter, Tiananmen2k21.
It's what all wingnuts wish they could do.
This is only going to bring out that the government is monitoring everyone's computer, which everyone knows anyway, but this will really bring it home to the younger generation, which will universally resent it.
And create a demand for un-monitored parts and computers, ideal for organized crime. Almost like it was organized crime's idea.
Doesn't mean much.
A correction to the footnote: It should read "except for the children of officials who tow the line".
Another correction: "no video games" is misleading. You can still play video games. Just on a schedule.
Video games turn men into sissies.
Still another correction. That's "no online video games". You can play games that are loaded onto your own computer.
That's "toe" the line, and high-ranking Chinese officials who do not toe the line quickly stop being high-ranking officials.
YES! The line towers union protests.
Uncle Xi is looking out for your best interests…
That's "Emperor Xi" to you, serf. Avert your eyes; they are too base for such radiance!
There's no limits on porn though
Gotta make more babies...........
Um. Much (most?) of the sex shown in porn is definitely non procreative. The orifices and pairings in much of it do not facilitate getting sperm to an egg at all… and even when P-in-V acts are shown, 99% of the time the male pulls out before finishing. Porn is definitely not primarily nor secondarily about achieving success in procreation.
Porn consumption over the last 50 years has grown much faster than population in pretty much every country, including China and especially since the internet took off. Whatever else porn is doing, it’s not directly increasing baby making.
Covid lockdowns...and no video games....
https://youtu.be/8CtjhWhw2I8 …
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/08/russia-prison-tv-navalny.html
Minors are a pretty small part of the video game market, and it only applies to online gaming.
It's tinged with an authoritarian fear of any social spaces they might not fully control, but otherwise it's basically like middle-aged politicians anywhere claiming that Video Games are Corrupting The Youth Of Today - except in China, they can threaten and bully the companies providing the games into compliance.
The only think missing is pounding on the bar while you Fix What's Wrong.
I'm guessing that happens during the party congress.
With shoes.
They will bury us?
Rolling off the production lines like noodles…
Paging ShadesOfGrey...
"More honored in the breach than the observance" was invented (by Shakespeare, clever guy to be that perspicacious) for this "law".
China is betting that, with an under-18 population roughly equal to the entire population of the US, even with burnout, they will have more top intellectuals coming out of the meat-grinder than the world combined, except India.
Just saying, we're going to be falling behind very rapidly over the next few decades, videogame warriors notwithstanding.
Just saying, we're going to be falling behind very rapidly over the next few decades, videogame warriors notwithstanding.
China has awful demographics, as I'm sure you know. Anything's possible, but it seems to me highly likely China will be experiencing Japan or Italy-like levels of growth before too long. So, unless the US is monumentally stupid (which is certainly possible) and does really crazy things (like, erm, shuts down immigration under a future MAGA administration), it's pretty likely that US growth will exceed China before too long. I think as early as the 2030s.
I predict a further renaissance of offline, single player games. Project Zomboid, RimWorld, and Stardew Valley show that the genre is alive and well.
Online games mostly suck right now. Authoritarianism can be good for art sometimes.
+1
Chinese teenagers are far too clever to be stymied by this latest inanity from the Party. Also, limits on playing video games in China aren't new, and from what I can see have had almost no effect (the regime has simply tightened the limits, is all).
Tencent has supposedly implemented facial recognition software (to prevent youngsters from using their parents' accounts) but there are other methods of circumvention available, namely VPNs and simply using off line games.
Xi is increasingly drunk on his own power.
OT James Pethokoukis tweet:
So, uh, KD, I think you were wrong about evictions.
My comment below was a reply to yours about Goldman.
Not that impressed.
How many evictions in a normal year?
I guess it gives these teens more time to masterbate furiousley online.
Party leaders were tired of getting their butts kicked in the games by the minors and are desperate to find a way to catch-up …
Is it wrong that I find it comforting that China has some of the same dumb cultural battles that we have?