Summary of proposed limits by Twitter user @Orikron
🇨🇳 China is set to limit the amount of time children spend on the internet:
16 to 18 - 2 hours
8 to 16 - 1 hour
Under 8 - 40 minutes
No internet access on children’s devices from 10pm-6am
Parents will be allowed to opt out of the time limits for their youngsters.
Edit: additional info from @qwename@lemmygrad.ml:
Parents can change default time limits
Reminder to rest every 30 minutes
Apps not subject to time limits include:
- Emergency-related (safety, emergency calling etc.)
- Approved educational apps
- Tools suitable for minors (image processing, calculator, measurement etc.)
- User-defined by parents
Full draft available in Chinese: http://www.cac.gov.cn/2023-08/02/c_1692541991073784.htm
If the parent gives in to a kid just because they raised a fuss about it, they have more issues than just the amount of time that child is spending online. 0
The government can’t single-handedly raise your child for you (short of some more extreme circumstances). They can help, they can give guidelines like these, but ultimately you are responsible.
I think having these restrictions will help a lot parents, especially new parents, have a good baseline to work with. If your kid is doing wonderfully in school, afterschool activities and wants some extra time online, maybe you can scale up their online free time. Grades start to suffer? Scale it back down. Your high school kid has a passion for app programming? Maybe you uncap their online time because it isn’t just about online gaming for them.
One size doesn’t fit all, and I think it’s a good middle ground.
I guess that would work as long as it is a pain to switch so most people wouldn’t unless it was important