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 @[email protected]:
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
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.