I work as a tutor online, and one of the students that I work with lives in China. He is applying to a Harvard pre-college summer program for this upcoming summer, and part of the application process is to write four 250 to 350 word essays about various topics. One of the questions asks students to come up with their own idea for a high school class or student club, and to explain why they think that it would be a good idea. The student that I was working with was having a hard time thinking of an idea, so I asked him if he had any interests or hobbies that his school did not have a class or club for. He paused for a second, and then sheepishly responded "well, e-sports, but I don't think that would be appropriate to write about because of the law." I asked him what he meant, and he said "the law says you aren't supposed to play video games if you are under 18." He went on to clarify that, until you turn 18, it is illegal to play video games at all during the week, and it is illegal to play video games for more than 1 hour per weekend. He said this was a relatively new law, and he was aware that it was not a law that existed elsewhere. I could tell how much he wanted to complain about it, but I suppose he knew better.

A quick Google search reveals that he is correct — in August 2021, China passed a law that forbids people under the age of 18 from playing video games, except between the hours of 8 and 9 PM on public holidays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. I suppose I misunderstood his comment about the time limit, as it is 1 hour per day on weekends not 1 hour per weekend, but the fact that it has to come during a specific time of day almost makes it worse than what I thought.

Obviously this is totally ridiculous, and a textbook example of government overreach, but I'm more surprised about the fact that I had not heard about this before. Did you know about this law? Or did it fly under your radar as well?

I remember hearing about this law back when I was playing Roblox (Yes I actually do play Roblox from time to time lmao) and learning there were dedicated Chinese servers that are specifically to redirect any people within that region to it and a homepage dedicated to these Chinese Localized versions of existing games. I kind of found it curious but I always knew China had a bit of a hatred towards Video Games in general.

They wouldn't allow them back in the early days and consoles and video games were constantly bootlegged due to this fact. Nintendo has tried to get their foot into the door in the 2000s with the IQue Player and stuff along those lines since I assume it was okay for Chinese manufacturers to release Plug and Play type consoles during those times, and in recent years were able to make more standardized consoles due to the lift of their Video Game ban, although the fact they basically are completely limiting video games to a demographic probably soured Nintendo from wanting to even compete in that type of business anymore.

I really don't think a whole entire government should monitor people's video game playtime or anything if they're under the age, that really should just be in the hands of the parent cause it just shows how unwilling they are to the idea of letting go of their own grip onto what they see as the future generation of their Community.

I figured something like this law existed in Communist China and come to think of it other communist countries such as North Korea and Venezuela.

In China they really don't want citizens playing or watching anything that comes from a country with democracy. They believe that it will corrupt the youth. That is why they limit availability to play video games until one is legally an adult. Also its a way of the communist govt keeping people in line. There are some army games were players can take on a authority type govt, which is what China is. I figured it was also so people would not get any ideas to rebel against the govt. So yeah, I figured something like that existed.

In North Korea they are worse. A lot of video games are made in Japan. Japan and North Korea are video games. North Korea associates some video games with democracy or corrupting the youth. What you can view and play is strictly controlled.

In Venezuela it is not so much the video game itself. But the communist govt limits how much electricity, and phone data you use. For example you may just get to stream or be on the internet for 10 hours per week. That is not an actual figure just an example.

Another country that limits video games people can play and how much is the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iran is a theocracy based govt. To them they see video games as the west trying to corrupt the state. They also sometimes see video games as the work of the devil.

I heard rumors about China possibly limiting or directly banning videogames, but didn't know it had actually become a reality.

I'm honestly a bit torn about this. I did have some kind of addiction to videogames back in time for the same reason as anybody else: evading the harsh reality I didn't want to live. While I wasn't heavily addicted to them as I was still picky about what to play, I didn't care for how much time I spent playing and it did have an impact in my personal life.

However, even if we can agree on limiting videogames due to the potential addiction they can produce that make us evade reality, I don't think this is the way to do it. Putting such a limit on something that is actually an entertainment is depriving citizens of their freedom. You are not allowed to have any distractions, anything that can drive you off the path of productiveness. We've seen such radical policies in professional athletes before, which is one of the reasons why China emerged as a top contender in the Olympics, but to think they're extending this to all their youngsters is extreme.

Of course, as others have pointed before me, there's the powerful fact of politics. China has been known for decades to produce their own local variants of everything used worldwide, and since they can't compete with such a heavy industry as videogames at a local level, they directly limit access to them. Also, it's not good to see what happens in other places in the world and take example, another reason for all these local variants of exclusive use.

I wish society and governments stopped focusing on potential problems like videogames and focused on other real problems, like for example tobacco. But tobacco produces just so many economic benefits to the country despite deteriorating our citizens' health, we cannot be too strict on its limits. Better focus on something that doesn't give us as much monetary gain, even more if we can play the politics card.