also bar users under the age of 18 from accessing the internet from 10pm to 6am.
Meanwhile, a tiered system will mean those under the age of eight will be permitted a maximum of 40 minutes of usage a day, with up to two hours permitted for 16 and 17-year-olds.
Children aged between eight to 16 will have their time limit capped at one hour. ‘Teenager mode’
The proposed reforms are open to public feedback as part of a consultation process scheduled to run until Sept 2.
If you actually read the thing it’s fine. It just requires phone manufacturers include a parental control function that is CAPABLE of those limits built in without charging extra for it. The parents still have to turn it on and can exempt apps from it or not set it up at all.
The most “authoritarian” part is online services with recommendations are “encouraged” (not actually required) to set up separate age algorithms. Algo for 3 year olds they recommend to be mostly audio and not ADHD video, algo for 8 year olds educational only, 12 year olds “positive” entertainment, 16 year olds “age appropriate”. And they want app store recommendations to not advertise lootbox games at kids.
Frankly, I wish my sister would do this for my nieces. Their addiction to TikTok is extraordinarily troubling, for several reasons.
Thanks. This is the kind of comment I originally went to reddit for. Good that I didn’t click the link
How it will work is thdt if you don’t use it, your social credit score will be affected or your kid’s teacher/class monitor will include it in their spy reports. This will prevent you from entering your preferred university or from joining the party later in life
That last sentence is the only true one AFAIK. Different reasons though, like dumbed down kids.
No, it’s related to teacher’s reporting on students. In China, you do have a permanent record and your schoolteacher is the first person who’s adding to it. You have a class monitor, who is chosen by a teacher or by class referendum, (I can’t remember which), and his/her job is communication between classmates and teachers. Secondary function is reporting on classmates’ personal lives. This continues from elementary school thru university.
I think it’s such a boomer-y perspective to treat phones as toys. For a lot of people, smartphones are their main computer. People do their homework, do research, learn languages, fill out forms, and lots of other productive activities.
Even communication is not frivolous. What if someone wants to talk to their father working in a factory in distant Guangdong for their birthday?
Apps related to China’s emergency services and education will, however, be exempted from the restrictions.
What counts as “education”? China recently has the chess world champion. Is studying opening chess moves “education”? I doubt it. Is reading video game websites in English to study English “education “? There are so many useful ways to let people flourish by following their passions.
There are so many useful ways to let people flourish by following their passions.
You know that’s sort of the opposite of how China operates, right? I mean, to be fair they have 1.4 BILLION people and a very centrally-planned authoritarian government that doesn’t have much flexibility. When the Chinese government is doing their planning they’ll often designate entire regions of the country like, “these folks will be textile workers” or “these folks will be farmers”. The last thing they want is for any large number of people to “follow their passions” because it would completely screw up their plans!
I’m sure they expect–and hope–some useful deviants emerge from their centrally-planned education and economy but I’m positive they’d prefer it if at least 99.9% of the population just falls in line.
I am all for criticizing authoritarianism, but I think that’s a bit of an exaggeration (similar things were said of the supposedly “conformist” Japanese in the 80s and 90s). You don’t hear the same things said of the US, even though the US school system is one of the most segregated in the developed world. If you grow up in certain neighborhoods, often along racial lines, you are designated to be a poorly paid service worker, with no real option to follow your passions. Social mobility in China remains higher than in the US.
In any case, we’re mostly in agreement inasmuch as I’m obviously criticizing this bad authoritarian policy in China.
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Haha, a lot of educational apps were banned in China already
Chinese kids going to be walking around with 8 smartphones like some of those people early in the Pokemon Go days. Long Huawei.
Maybe Linux phones.
I see we’re just gonna keep the Reddit norm of posting bullshit headlines for clicks
This sounds difficult to actually implement.
For example, I play a mobile game where if you have an iOS account that is set as an “under 13” account anywhere in the settings, the in-game chat is permanently turned off for you. But, there’s nothing that stops an actual 10-year-old from having an account that doesn’t have the age settings, thusly allowing them to access whatever gets said in the game chat.
The proposals for app devs described in the article also don’t make a lot of sense and sound like huge hurdles to overcome.
China actually already has a system in place that kinda works for their existing video game restrictions - your accounts are connected to your social ID, or to a social media which in turn is connected to your social ID. Alternatively I wouldn’t be surprised if like what they do is connect your SIM card to your national number (which is possible - some countries do it for 2FA for government stuff and banking) which is what they use to control internet usage
…of course it does little against the tried and true method of “using your mum’s phone/ID for games”
Yeah cell phone use and access to the internet in general is so ingrained in most modern cultures that it really can’t be meaningfully stopped. These devices connect people, particularly teenagers to friends, significant others, trending news, and provides an outlet to many things they don’t have other accesses to as not-yet-adults. Full implementation of this law would literally be enough to start the next cultural revolution.
I like, but this is something parents should enforce, not the government.
I am all for it. Ban smartphones and bring back dumbphones.
