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Chinese Govt Limits Kids to 3hrs of Online Gaming
1MC writes "The Chinese govt is requiring game houses to modify MMOG's to restrict under 18 users to 3 hours "productive" gameplay per day. This "anti-addiction" software must be in place within 4 months, with games not compliant by July 15 liable to be shut down in China. Net9, Shanda and NetEase will be moving to comply with the government regulations. Users will have to register with their real names and Chinese identity card numbers to be allowed access to the games."
I'd rather say, thank-god-i'm-not-in-china!
Looks like I'll have to look to India for my gold farming.
Can't they just restrict their manufacturing to 3 hours a day too?
How about it starts by improving the country's dismal human rights record? I would be a lot less worried about my kid playing too much WoW than I would be about the possibility that he could be thrown in prison for the rest of his life because he made a speech at his school bad-mouthing the government.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
FTFA: "Under the system, known as the "anti-online game addiction system", the first 3 hours of play for each day is considered "healthy", during which players will be awarded full points in the virtual world. The next 2 hours will yield only half the normal points and there will be no points after 5 hours. "
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Users will have to register with their real names and Chinese identity card numbers to be allowed access to the games.
THAT is the real reason. Register for this...soon register for ALL internet use.
"We want to know who you are and where you go."
> I think the distinction between "government" and "family" is actually a little artificial
I think this is one of the most wrong things I've ever read.
A parent has a direct compelling desire to protect and nurture his/her child. The parent has intimate knowledge and experience of that child's unique requirements. The parent has a genetic drive to insure the child's welfare. I can tell you as a parent that this drive is powerful and in the same realm as the drive for food and shelter. I feel the need to care for my child the same way I feel the need to eat.
The "government" is not a single entity, but the resultant vector of millions of competing agendas and forces. As such it doesn't "care" for any child and it doesn't have knowledge of any child. It can only set broad policies that hopefully indirectly cause "good" but often cause "bad" in it's pursuit of particular agendas.
Corporations and Governments are not people. They are not living entities, although we often treat them as such legally.
To say the "government" can care for a child is simply incorrect. A teacher, a nanny, a social worker, a lawyer and a congressman may be affecting a child, but there is no such person as "the government".
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat