Summary of proposed limits by Twitter user @Orikron
🇨🇳 China is set to limit the amount of time children spend on the internet:
16 to 18 - 2 hours
8 to 16 - 1 hour
Under 8 - 40 minutes
No internet access on children’s devices from 10pm-6am
Parents will be allowed to opt out of the time limits for their youngsters.
Edit: additional info from @qwename@lemmygrad.ml:
Parents can change default time limits
Reminder to rest every 30 minutes
Apps not subject to time limits include:
- Emergency-related (safety, emergency calling etc.)
- Approved educational apps
- Tools suitable for minors (image processing, calculator, measurement etc.)
- User-defined by parents
Full draft available in Chinese: http://www.cac.gov.cn/2023-08/02/c_1692541991073784.htm
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if it’s the default and recommended by the government, a lot of parents are going to go along with it anyway without being coerced
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Sure, but the parents need to be able to handle that based on their local conditions. Not everyone is going to agree with the system (e.g. maybe they just want a slightly higher limit for their child) and the proposal suggests an opt-out feature to prevent unnecessary discontent
What if the kid needs it for homework? Lots of stuff is moving online, whether we like it or not.
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From what it sounds like, the blocks are just on devices of the children in similar ways that parental controls more or less already work. So I would imagine that the parents could have ways to grant access in similar ways that can be done on Windows. A request to be allowed to use something gets sent to be approved by the parent, and give a window of time to use it. The night-time default setting of 10PM to 6AM isn’t does make sense if trying to push for kids to sleep (though I have always had issues getting to sleep before midnight and would be annoyed not being able to kill time online). Also seems that they are asking for the input of the people currently. So things like homework should very much be something that gets brought up by those that submit concerns/ideas to the officials.
I am not a fan of super controlled restrictions on accessing the internet. But I also think that while more things are being put online, there is a big difference between knowing how to use something and it being just always demanding your attention. We are seeing that hyper use of social media is causing so many to further feel outcast and depressed. Especially since so much of the stuff posted is fake shit to make other people think that the person posting stuff is living such a “good/cool/wild/elite/etc life.” Just attention seeking stuff and placing the vibes or super surface level shit above real things/knowledge.
The internet has become so much about consumerism and pushing for making us have shorter and shorter attention spans. Ads plastered everywhere and the rapid forcing of rapid fire AI generated content masking itself as humans. Rumors and click-bait shit are used to encourage reactionary sharing and acting without having ever read/watched the piece. So many of these things are already causing adults of all ages to believe nonsense. So many young folks I interact with can use the hell out of their phones and apps. But they don’t actually know how to use actual computers or even know where their files are. Just assuming that the devices will automatically do everything for them. Even real computers are being dumbed down to just copy phones/tablets and ads keep invading into the OSes themselves. Always online is really becoming a much larger issue than just parental controls. But this rant has gone on longer than I ever meant for it to. Just so much capitalist/consumerist shit being placed before any actual learning or putting people before profits.
I’m not a huge fan of enforced time restrictions either, kids or otherwise. In an ideal world, society would be set up such that kids can play however they want with the resources they have access to, without harming their development, and limits like these would not be needed. HOWEVER, this is not an ideal world. Companies are doing everything they can to capture your kids’ attentions and not let them go, siphoning them in with dark patterns created by psychologists that children do not stand a chance at defending themselves against. They can easily ruin their future through addiction to internet services that’s been expertly crafted to get them addicted, and it’s the fault of capitalism, which sadly does also exist in China. Under these conditions, while an enforced time limit is far from ideal and will be hard on both the parent and child, it is currently the best way to protect children from capitalism IMO. If we want to see these restrictions become obsolete and no longer imposed, we need to crack down on the actual causes of these things, which is the internet services themselves and make sure they operate ethically (non-capitalistically) before we can chance giving children unlimited access to them.
Think it’d be pretty easy to tell a kid you can’t, or just not inform them that there is an opt-out process in the first place, but I could get it if some people object to the lying by omission
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If the parent gives in to a kid just because they raised a fuss about it, they have more issues than just the amount of time that child is spending online. 0
The government can’t single-handedly raise your child for you (short of some more extreme circumstances). They can help, they can give guidelines like these, but ultimately you are responsible.
I think having these restrictions will help a lot parents, especially new parents, have a good baseline to work with. If your kid is doing wonderfully in school, afterschool activities and wants some extra time online, maybe you can scale up their online free time. Grades start to suffer? Scale it back down. Your high school kid has a passion for app programming? Maybe you uncap their online time because it isn’t just about online gaming for them.
One size doesn’t fit all, and I think it’s a good middle ground.
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not every kid is the same and i think this is recognition of that fact. promoting health while still giving trust to families is a good thing in my opinion. they can always revise these rules if it has unforeseen issues.