On today’s episode of ‘Only In China’..
In what is either a brilliant or draconian move, the Chinese government is going to start enforcing a video game curfew for minors. Believe it or not, official government guidelines in regards to just how much gaming minors under the age of 18 can partake in has been released. To be fair, the reason cited is legit; that the activity of gaming is damaging to children’s health.
However, if you look at how much game time kids have been allocated, you can’t help but to feel for them. Gamers under 18 will now be banned from playing online between 10pm and 8am. On top of that, they will also be restricted to 90-minutes of playtime on weekdays, with the allocated time doubling to 3 hours on weekends and holidays. It’s basically the same grounding every Asian parent enforces on their child when they get A’s instead of A+’s, except a hell of a lot worse.
In addition to the aforementioned curfew, gamers between the ages of 8 and 16 will now also have their gaming expenditure capped. People in this age group will only be able to spend 200 RMB (RM118) on games per month, while gamers between the ages of 16 and 18 will get double that.
Yesterday, it wasn’t so bad to be a 13 year old kid in China. Today, well.. it sucks. Imagine waking up to find out that you’ve been grounded by the government. I mean, you can always convince your parents but the Chinese government? We all know what happened the last time a bunch of kids tried to voice out their dissatisfaction.
While the rationale behind it all makes sense, inflicting a curfew seems downright harsh. China used to be the biggest gaming market in the world, but with the increase of regulations, the USA has actually surpassed the Asian powerhouse for the first time this year. These regulations include China announcing a game regulator in response to near-sightedness concerns, halting approval for new video games and now, the curfew on minors.
The World Health Organization has actually classified gaming addiction as a mental health disorder for the first time last year, whilst the American Psychiatry Association has yet to recognize it. In this sense, China is a lot more progressive than their counterparts in the USA. The Chinese governments concern for its minors should be lauded but how much restriction is too much restriction? Surely if curfews need to be set, there are more important issues at hand than gaming.
Just another day in China, I suppose.
