Videogame restrictions in China
You may have read in the news lately that China currently has a campaign going on against… Well, basically all forms of entertainment, and some other things as well. From celebrities to role playing games, from cartoons to videogames. It seems they want people to be very bored and turn their attention to… having sex so the fertility rate starts increasing at last.
When I first studied Chinese in Beijing, back in 2006, we had a class in which we would debate about many different topics, using our very limited language abilities. I distintly remember that one of our discussions was videogame addiction. Fifteen years ago, Chinese adults were already very worried about the time their children spent playing videogames. But children spend too much time playing games or watching TV everywhere… Why is it particularly concerning to Chinese?
Well, it might be because of the rat race that their education is. People still think that, to “make it”, their children need to attend one of the best universities in China. I think this is a valid concern for people from humble origins, as education is probably their only way out of poverty, but for middle-upper class families… I don’t think it is. The thing is, since they are maybe 3 years old, Chinese children start attending all manners of extracurricular lessons because, as their parents put it, “if everybody else does it, we have to do it too!”. I have even seen ads for something called Baby MBAs, which yes, I am pretty sure it’s a great way to separate anxious parents from their money. You might have also heard about the Chinese government clamping down on extracurricular classes, and I applaud this, although it comes with a whole set of new problems (for example, children being out of class before their parents finish working and go back home, which makes families once again dependant on grandparents, which truly are the saviors of Chinese society…).
Videogames have been called “opium” and we can all agree that spending too much time on one thing is not healthy. However, is it up to the government to decide what our children should and should not do in their free time? And here I am totally revealing myself as a Westerner, haha, although I believe many people in China share this thought (but you won’t see it on official channels because, well, their comments get deleted). There is also the fact that, by specifying when children can play games (Fridays to Sundays, 8 to 9 pm), the government seems to be saying: “Well, parents, as you are unable to educate your children, we will have to… and treat you like children in the process, too” (do you remember the “giant infant” controversy of a few years ago?). For many people this is not a problem at all, and in one of the news that I linked at the beginning, a parent said that “I think this is the right policy. It amounts to the state taking care of our kids for us” (let’s hope the next step isn’t to literally take care of them, by putting all children in state controlled facilities or something like that, to ensure their correct and patriotic education). Some Western voices have expressed their support, and even envy, of the new regulation, and that’s perfectly fine too (I may long for a similar rule when my son becomes a teenager!).
I wonder if the Chinese children’s reaction will be: “Oh, I can’t play games anymore, I’ll study instead!”, or “Oh, I can’t play games anymore, I’ll just watch TV or stupid videos on my phone until my eyes fall off”. What do you think?
Well, the Chinese are not the only one that want their children in good schools from toddler age and this is middle to upper class who can afford the private education. When my children were young, it was stressful and very competitive. I’m sure you saw the scandal in L.A. where an actress paid money to get her daughters in the best schools and she and her husband have done jail time, paid fines, etc. because of this.
The reason we might applaud China for wanting to put a stop to video games for children, is because of how violent they have become. I’m sure you will soon be monitoring your son; however, once he starts school and becomes older depending on who his friends are, he might be going to video chat rooms and talking to strangers.
Imagine families that have older siblings. Young children are seeing things that OLDER kids look at by default. Also, parents are LAZY to parent, so just hand their child a computer and they can see anything they want which is not age appropriate.
I’m glad when my children grew up there was mainly Facebook, but I didn’t even want them on that, but their friends were on it and that’s how they communicated. Now, they are older and don’t care about Facebook.
Anyhow… right now, your son is young, but I can tell you are a loving mother, so you will hopefully watch and monitor how much time he spends on computer.
In California, because of the stress that was put on children to go to Ivy league schools there were many suicides in High School. Not only grades, but kids have to be in extra curricular activities, set themselves apart from other students — THIS IS SO STRESSFUL. No time to just enjoy being young.
Now with COVID and all of this online schooling — things might have changed a little bit. Imagine good Universities range from $43,000 – $80,000 per year!! This is insane!
Anyhow… the internet is good and it’s bad. But just know, Americas are starting their kids for MBA school at 2 years old too!
Thanks for sharing your experience! The college admissions scandal sounded familiar and I just read the article on Wikipedia. Even Ivy League colleges were involved… disgraceful (I do think that the colleges should be punished way more severely than the parents. You can’t bribe someone if they don’t accept it).
I have to disagree with your opinion on videogames, though! There are videogames of many different genres, and not all of them are violent. (It’s like saying that all books are romantic novels, for example). The videogames industry nowadays is very diverse and caters to all kinds of audiences, much like the film industry. My point being, that parents should be responsible and know what their children are playing (the same way that we have to be careful with what they watch on TV).
I didn’t know American kids were so busy. But I still think it’s a whole other level in China. For example, in my almost 15 years living there, I have almost never seen groups of teenagers in nonschool situations (ie. teenagers hanging out at the mall or at the park). I can only think of one instance, and it was expat teenagers!
We definitely don’t have that obsession about attending a “good” college in Spain. Maybe because many universities are at the same level more or less (unless it’s a very specific degree). I do think private colleges (the equivalent of Ivy League, obviously not so good though) have the advantage of providing more connections to their students (that’s one of the reasons they pay through the nose to go there…).
Well, kids do not hang out at malls in America, because most of the malls are closed now everything is bought online. I don’t know if/where they would hang out.
Video games, of course there are a variety, but you’ll learn as a parent that as children grow up, it’s hard to have complete control over them and what they are viewing on their phone, computer or Ipad. Also, video games are addictive. My mother has an Asian friend her in America. She complains that as soon as her husband comes home, he goes immediately to play video games and he is in his 40s. She is so frustrated. Well, to husband that is a relaxing outlet.
Even TV programs have become so violent lately for adults. Anyhow, this is how our world is right now, in turmoil and the shows have this same vibe to them.
The key as a parent is to “try” as much as you can to monitor what they are doing, who their friends are, etc. Many parents have issues with their children, because they don’t parent. It’s sad to go to a restaurant and see an entire family looking at their phones… not conversing.
Since I have found my kid on an iPad or iPhone watching stupid YouTube videos when his gaming computer is locked up in my room, I am pretty sure I know the answer. Baby D used to love reading books, but the written word just can’t compete with the excitement of screens.
Except in us old people, of course.
Baby A. still loves books but yes, screens are just so addictive. It’s like they’re made of heroin for children or something…
I actually grew up playing *good* video games (aka, not fortnight) and I am still an avid gamer today (games like Horizon Zero Dawn and Ghosts of Tsushima are masterpieces!). I think games can be used as a great storytelling device and a way for kids to think strategically (depending on the game!), so I would let my kids play games as long as I monitor the games (no Last of Us zombie apocalypse game for the toddler, haha). I think the real danger are those massive multiplayer online games, which are intensively addicting, have no plot/story, aren’t that strategic and are literally built for the sole purpose to addict people.
The funny part is, China just released a huge MMO game called “Genshin Impact” and many people in gaming circles around the world (including friends and family) are super addicted to it. So I guess it’s ok for China to make addicting video games, as long as non-Chinese people get addicted to their games and they can make money off of it, lol.
I agree with you, though — no matter what it is, parents need to teach their kids balance. I think video games are an easy scapegoat, but its just as easy to get addicted to youtube etc.. as you mentioned. I also learned from my time in Utah that the more you repress someone, the harder they fall in the long run (aka, in Utah, many mormons who left the church became raging alcoholics lol).
BTW you translate video games right? Or is it other stuff? I hope these new regulations are not affecting your work too much!
Haha, I don’t dare commenting on Fortnite as I’ve never played it. I’ve never been an avid gamer (although I do work in the game industry, the irony haha) but when I was a child I enjoyed games like Day of the Tentacle and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Later on I played some games (or watched my husband playing haha), my favourite being Life is Strange.
I’ve played Genshin Impact a bit and it’s also huge in China. But I’d say most people playing it are over 18s, so not sure if the new law would affect it. And yes, Chinese people are so addicted to those horrible MMORPGs in which you basically don’t need to do anything, just spend the whole day clicking, pay money and voila you are the number 1 in your server (I’ve worked on several pieces of shit like that, hahaha).
For some reason your comment went straight to spam, not even the moderation queue. Bad WordPress!
My husband and I didn’t send our children to coaching sessions, and we didn’t pressure them to do well in school. We spent time with them and encouraged them to believe in learning. Although they all went to ivy league schools, I wouldn’t have wanted them to do so if those schools hadn’t suited them. My youngest grandson has more video game temptations, so his parents limit his use of them, but they also have encouraged him to develop other skills and activities, esp. those that suit his interests. He loves sports, so that takes up most of his free time.
It helps if your children grow up in an environment that values education. We all have different philosophies life and of education. It’s inevitable that we’ll pass those on to them.
Thanks for sharing your experience, Nicki! I completely agree, the family environment is extremely important. How can we tell children to read a book instead of playing videogames when we spend the whole day scrolling down our Facebook or Instagram feed…?
What a toughie. Video games have become both very lucrative and addicting regardless of how innocent the content is. As almost always, I’m for a balance. On the one hand it’s good that the govt is stepping in because it can be a problem, on the other people have a tendency to rebel. I’m reminded of the famous “war on drugs” in the US which resulted in — you guessed it — more drugs.
I’m teaching 5 eight year old boys who love to talk about the online games they play. It’s a way for them to bond and during lockdown, I know these types of games was a lifeline for them. That being said, I can tell which child is more ‘obsessed’ than the others; sometimes it’s a personality type and maybe it’s parenting? But my god, we can’t blame everything on the parents, can we?
But maybe China is taking a long look at countries like the Japan where I think gaming and porn has gotten a wee bit out of control, to the point where no one wants to procreate, so the govt has had to step in and try to implement dating and wedding incentives to get their population to have babies!
Well to be honest I can totally understand why people don’t want to have children. They are annoying! (Haha!)
I think that, for many people, videogames are a much needed escape because life sucks so much. The problem is when it becomes an addiction. But I don’t think it’s part of the low birth rates in China. There, people don’t want to have more children simply because they cannot afford it…
From one extreme to the next, eh? It’s probably an inner need to control the birth rate in a country…
And yes, escapism big time, esp during a worldwide pandemic and with so many huge crushing problems looming, too.
Of course, the elephant in the room is that people here aren’t having enough kids. It’s the driving force behind a good deal of these new rules. Can’t point out the obvious problems like a too competitive school system, huge differences in the quality of education, not enough universities, the high cost of raising children, the Houkou problems that working class people face to access quality education and social services, crazy expensive housing (and a cultural dowry system) and a large future gender imbalance. Those are extremely difficult problems to solve, even for a government that can rule without restrictions. I do see some minor progress on those fronts but those are large systemic problems that may be almost impossible to solve, much like gun violence or the legacy of racism in my own country.
Severely restricting video games for kids and banning ‘sissy boys’ from media are easy things to do and score some cheap points for tackling “the problem”. I call it the ‘chicken in every pot and finger in every pie’ policy and laugh when I think what would happen if they tried to do any of it in America – since we can’t get people to take a free vaccine that can save your life, let alone tell someone’s kids when they can play a video game.
*Unpopular opinion for westerners – banning social media and using real ID for all internet postings might be the single most important regulation the Chinese government has enacted. While I completely oppose it on philosophical and political grounds, I’m starting to think it may be the thing that matters most 20 years into the future. Social media and its effects on society are causing such damage in the West, really ripping apart our societies, and we don’t know how this story ends.
On the topic of your first paragraph, just yesterday my husband was asking me if we could take our son to a school in Madrid if we moved there, even if we didn’t have a job in the city. Er, yes, because there is no such thing as a hukou in Spain. “Then why doesn’t everybody go to Madrid to attend the best schools?”. Because there are good schools everywhere in the country? Because all public schools get more or less the same funding and resources?
haha – yeah, I’ve had conversations like that as well. Also that you can just rent a house in a good school district in the states and your kids get to attend the good public school there. Many Chinese people are surprised. Same with things like the community college system in the US. Explaining Hukou to my mom and that you either have to own a house within the school district in China to get your kids into the school or have a very powerful danwei was funny. When she asked the obvious “what about people who rent and can’t afford a house” and “what if you don’t have hukou” follow up questions, she was quite shocked by my you’re screwed and too bad for you answer. Even the media doesn’t seem to understand the importance of home ownership in China (not really surprising since I can’t remember the last accurate article I’ve read about China)
It is not that kids ditch studying because of playing video games. It is the other way round. So no, they won’t go back to studying. They’ll figure out something else to do probably.
Absolutely, haha. And it’s interesting this obsession with everybody studying when there are simply not enough universities for all the students (and no need for so many college graduates). Now in Spain professional training courses finally have a growing demand, after decades of being considered an “option for bad students”… China could look into that too.
I have this feeling my 5 nieces and nephews didn’t get addicted to videogames. Their parents distracted them with their soccer, ice hockey and gymnastics practices, etc. for a number of yrs. Don’t know about youngest nephew (11) and niece (14).
It also depends on each children’s character and hobbies, I think. I had videogames at home and played sometimes, but I preferred other activities so I never became addicted either.
I think my eldest niece who is now 35 yrs.old (maybe closer to your age), had very little interest in videogames. She was a more of a reader.