As if Chinese kids didn't have it hard enough with the great filter, compulsory dogmatic subservience to the ruling party, and social credit scoring, they can't even escape into video games for more than an hour and a half a day anymore. As part of a move to cut back on what it sees as video game addiction, the Chinese government has instigated a new 90-minute limit on video games for children per day.
That time limit does extend to three hours a day on weekends and on holidays, but will be monitored, so anyone going over 90 minutes will be in trouble. Play can also only be conducted between 8AM and 10PM at night, even for 17-year-olds. Once a child turns 18 and becomes an adult, the restrictions are lifted, but that won't be a fun change of pace for many gamers who fall into China's categorization of addictive play. Nor those who just like to play for longer than most.
Game developers and service runners will be co-opted into complying with the rules, making sure that players aren't allowed to stay logged in beyond the 90 minute time limit if they're underage.
Other new limits being enforced put a cap on expenditure in games, making it so that China's children can't spend more than $30 (equivalent) a month in games, until they're 16, at which point the limit is raised to just shy of $50 per month.
If you're thinking kids will get around these blocks somehow, that's probably true, but China is also forcing real name identification in games, so kids will need to be pretty smart to avoid being caught out by the curfew system.
"NVIDIA at ChinaJoy 2015" by NVIDIA Corporation is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
