Memo to Xi Jinping if Chinas kids are anything like mine fat chance with your three-hour gaming limit
In a move sure to horrify young people around the world, China â" the home of spy software TikTok and rampant cyber-espionage â" has banned children from playing video games for more than three hours a week. The aim, announced state media, is to reduce addiction in kids, for whom online gaming is âspiritual opiumâ.
Now, Iâm not convinced that itâs magically safer to game after the age of 18, that the habit-forming gene will somehow have been crushed. I mean, I didnât discover online thrifting until a month ago, and now I spend 12 hours a day hunting for bargains on the internet. Still, many kids derive enormous pleasure and stimulation from online gaming without becoming hooked, my own three included.
Time out ... Tencent will limit childrenâs playing time on its popular Honour of Kings online game.Credit:Tencent
Still, some kids do become addicted to online games â" even here in democratic Australia â" so should we outsource the monitoring of our kidsâ screens to the government?
Well, if weâre going to limit online gaming, we should really limit all online activity. If my daughter could only watch TikTok for 15 minutes a week, Iâd be spared the aggravation of those nails-on-a-blackboard audio clips being repeated ad infinitum. And if she could only spend 10 minutes on Instagram makeup tutorials, sheâd devote less time to practising her winged eyeliner in her room, and Iâd devote less time to removing eyeliner from her carpet.
We should certainly limit reality TV shows for kids. God only knows what The Bachelor does to impressionable young brains, and if my kid says âblindsideâ or âstrategic allianceâ one more time, Iâll be suing the producers of Survivor.
And what if my kids could only watch livestreams for half an hour a week? Then maybe the three of them would have fewer inside jokes, and Iâd understand more of their conversation at the dinner table. Iâm tired of being disenfranchised by technology. What the hell is a Pog Champ, anyway?
Maybe the government should ban screens altogether. Or maybe, just maybe, we parents can step in and manage our kidsâ addiction to devices. There are high-tech tricks we can employ as parents to cut down our childrenâs use of screens. We can set limits, take them outside for exercise, turn off the wifi, even confiscate their phones. I know! What a revolutionary idea.
And really, these strategies might be even more effective than watertight government legislation.
âYou know, Mum,â my son said, âmost of my friends are using pirated software. Iâm pretty sure we could get around any ban.â
Wow, I thought. Itâs lucky no-one in China knows how to cyber hack.
Kerri Sackville is an author, columnist and mother of three. Her latest book is 'Out There: A Survival Guide for Dating in Midlife'.Connect via Twitter or Facebook.
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