Gaming

they dont hate video games, they hate multiplayer games and its effects on childrens/minors, china like japan and korea has had problems with minors getting very addicted to online games and living in online cafes https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/02/06/national/kyushu-gaming-addition-young-people/

now to you and me its looks kinda weird right, but you need to keep in mid that those regulations only target kids under 18, also it only affects online so a teen could play all Legend of zelda he wants but only 2 hours of games like league of legends or dota.

see it like how in the west they ban selling cigarettes to minors but people over 18 can buy as many as they can.

this article tries to explain why do they have a negative view over online games https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3156540/china-vs-video-games-why-beijing-stopped-short-gaming-ban-keeping

Just wanna suggest anyone reading this post that they should read "the govt of China" anytime they come across "China". We in the Anglophone world love being hysterically scared/detesting of "the Chinese", and our governments love it.

While being illegal in theory, China still has 9-9-6 in most of the workforce. That means parents work from 9 am to 9pm 6 times a week. Biggest employer of China such as Foxconn make people sleep at factory floor from Monday to Saturday.

This creates an environment where children basically grow with playing games. Most people in China does not own gaming computers or consoles. People play P2W mobile games with real gambling and gacha mechanics. Gambling addiction is insanely big problem so Chinese government is trying to bud the problem out of it is roots. Henceforth children gets limited screen time.

Authoritarians really don't like when it they can't control communication, which definitely includes creative expression in media. Games fall under that umbrella so the government is going to do what it needs to in order to keep enough control over the media in question.

The "reasons" why aren't really important and will be figured out and thrown around as needed. But it really just comes down to control.

“I think this is the right policy,” she said. “It amounts to the state taking care of our kids for us.”

This phrase just screams “BAD PARENT” to me.
Why do you have to offload the responsibility of caring for your children to the government? You chose to bring them into the world, now you’re responsible for them.

ngl I kind of agree with them, why shouldn't the government help parents look after their children? The entire purpose of a government should be to support the people who live in the country.

I think it's a "cultural wars" kind of thing, but the Chinese version of it. They envision a strong, proud, nationalist society, and kids laying around playing video games when they could be working towards becoming the ideal citizen of tomorrow.

“electronic drugs”

I guess they're doing a war on drugs then...

I guess they primarily mean smartphone games, not Xbox, ps5 or whatever.

And I think this is more justified. While everyone needs a smartphone today you will always have it close and be tempted to play games.

The first article directly justifies all the restrictions china put in place and calls for even stricter restrictions, let's hope the CPC takes more actions to prevent more of it's youth slipping into degeneracy