China

I saw a similar article posted on Reddit the other day and it was like twilight zone in the comments where almost everyone was saying that all parents should do this with their kids. I think it was centered around young children though. Still I think is shows that it's almost unanimously agreed children should be safe guarded from the internet. lol.

Meanwhile is the west we have games made specifically to prey upon children and trick them into spending thousands from their parents credit cards and don't get me started on the cesspool that is gaming streamers.

One of the main complaints I've heard from kids in my area around 10 years and up is that banning them from the internet is essentially isolating them. Most families do not have home phones any longer, so their only way to communicate is often via online apps.

I think setting reasonable limits is important, but it may also be necessary to make sure children still have ways to socialize with other children regularly outside of school. Granted, I know nothing of how this works in China and maybe it's a non-issue there.

This is a great policy. This forces Chinese internet companies to provide ways to prevent youth digital addiction, unlike in the West where anything goes.

The parent opt-out policy is a good thing. Some youth may be under special circumstances (esports gamer, mobile developer, etc.).

I didn't know that the youth gaming policy was also opt-out. Everyone in the west omitted that said that it was mandatory, and that seemed pretty over the top. Since both are opt out, this is a very reasonable policy.

Here's the full draft in Chinese: http://www.cac.gov.cn/2023-08/02/c_1692541991073784.htm. It's actual 40 minutes for "Under 8" and not 8 minutes. Here's my own summary:

The proposed guidelines do not just affect smartphones, but all mobile smart devices for kids.

The proposed 5 age groups are:

• Under 3
• 3 to under 8
• 8 to under 12
• 12 to under 16
• 16 to under 18

Default time limits are (parents can exempt all time limits):

• under 8: 40 minutes
• 8 to under 16: 1 hour
• 16 to under 18: 2 hours
• Reminder to rest every 30 minutes
• No service to be provided to minors from 10PM to 6AM the next day

Apps not subject to time limits:

• emergency-related (safety, emergency calling etc.)
• approved educational apps
• tools suitable for minors (image processing, calculator, measurement etc.)
• User-defined by parents

Content providers are also required to provide age-based service under "minor mode". You can find the recommendations for different age groups under the heading "五、移动互联网应用程序未成年人模式要求（一）基本要求", it's too long for me to translate.

There's more information in the full draft, this proposed guidelines is basically a mix of parental controls and NSFM (NSFW but for minors, not safe for minors) requirements for content providers.

Also, not sure of they already have this already, but children under like 15 or so should not be allowed to post or interact online without direct parent supervision. There is way too much risk of grooming, or hell, even just posting something dumb as kids are, having it blow up, and deeply regretting it in your adulthood.

I think the ideal polilcy both recognizes the possible benefits from the increased access to information that comes with the internet, and the great risks. An elephant in the room, with a particular significance to those who experienced it first (not to say that our parents didnt have similar or worse in non digital form) is the fact that the normalization of internet access also normalized access to hardcore pornography amongst teenagers and even some kids.

I bet western media will just magically forget to mention that the parents have the final control over the system when they cover the story.

My kneejerk reaction would be that too many parents would just instantly opt-out for it to be effective, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised that a lot of people might just keep the default parameters. If I suddenly became a parent and didn't have a good concept of what an appropriate amount of time would be, I might be inclined to keep the baseline restrictions. Even if they don't, the government limitation could be good guidelines for them to base what they decide would work.

Seems like a good first step, 2 hours seems like plenty of time for high school students, at least during the week. I wouldn't necessarily mind lighter restrictions on weekends, but that would probably fall under the purview of parental discretion. No live-streaming for under-16 seems like a no-brainer that should be adopted everywhere honestly.

When’s CCP Joe gonna force this tyrannical measure on our poor little Amerikkkan children? (Soon inshallah 🙏)

are these per day? per week?

Parents will be allowed to opt out of the time limits for their youngsters.

IMO, most parents will in that case. There needs to be more State (or more reasonably, their qualified and trained teachers) oversight if this is to work. Not as in don't let parents opt out at all, but more like "You want your kid to opt out? Great, tell us why and we'll assess the situation and either approve or deny your opt out request." Or, again more reasonably, "You want your kid to opt out? Great, let's arrange a parent teacher meeting and we can all talk about it and everyone, including the child, gets to voice their opinion, and we'll come to a solution we can all accept."

The notion that kids belong to their parents and so that they should have the final say is outdated. Kids belong to themselves first and foremost, so their future must be protected, and secondly to society because that's where they'll live once they grow up. If the parents are dumb at parenting in a way that jepordizes the child's future, then they need to be corrected for the sake of the child. I'm not saying to prevent the parents from raising their kids or to completely overrule the parents or punish them or anything like that, but I'm saying that teachers and other professionals should also weigh in, work with both the parents and child, and reprimand the parents if they're making a really stupid decision. It takes a village.