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Why does China's government hate video games so much? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by lemuria@lemmy.ml to c/gaming@lemmy.ml

9 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I saw a post here (https://lemmy.ml/post/1179679) about some Chinese kid spending USD 64k on video games and I read the news article and found myself down a rabbit hole.

https://www.techspot.com/news/98980-13-year-old-spent-64000-parents-money-mobile.html

China has long held a dim view of video games, calling them "electronic drugs" a few years ago. It only allows those under 18 to play online games for one hour, between 8 pm and 9 pm local time, on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays.

So basicaly, this article says that China (or more accurately the Chinese government) has a dim view of video games.

So I kept digging and found this article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/30/business/media/china-online-games.html

“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.

Which brings me to my question... why does China's government hate video games so much? Why would they want to impose such draconian restrictions on childrens' free time?

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[–] Clodsire@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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

[–] HornyOnMain@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

“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.

[–] Jongaros@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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.

[–] Goronmon@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] zephyr7913@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

This is the true reason. Most people don't know enough about the country and have a naive view on the gov's actions and the reasoning behind them. They downvoted your comment because of this without realizing how close it is to the truth.

Source: am a Chinese who took a risk in leaving this comment

[–] piezoelectron@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

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.

[–] ColonelPanic@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

True, although that's not just limited to "China". Basically every country is treated as a homogenous block of people which is not that great for discussions.

[–] NuPNuA@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mean, the government of a nation represent the will of the people and what they desire the nation to be like do they not? When they don't, they eithert get voted out or removed by force.

[–] piezoelectron@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year ago

This is a common misconception, but fully understandable one. If you look into political theory, one of the first things you discover is that all governments -- whether they call themselves "democratic" or not -- are, before anything else, at war with the people they claim to represent.

The "people" -- not rival foreign states -- are the first group against which a state of at war with, whether the state in question is a monarchy, a republic, a dictatorship, a plutocracy or something else.