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 @[email protected]:
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
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The notion that kids belong to their parents and so that they should have the final say is outdated.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.
i would argue this is less of an indication that kids belong to their parents, and more a result of realistic expectations. from what I can tell, this system as-is can run in place with little oversight. The request pipeline idea would require a whole other fully-staffed effort with unknown benefits, new policies, and runs the risk of introducing bias or inconsistent application.
Good points there!
There’s more power than you think in making what you want be the default. Imagine there’s a restaurant where you automatically get healthy food but could call it back and get junk food in a minute. Most people are going to keep the healthy food unless they’re a really picky child. Now imagine now where McDonald’s is the default and it’s the easiest food to get everywhere, but you could work harder and make healthy food, but most won’t. completely different outcome.
Actually, that’s a really good point. Come to think of it I may have been doubting parents too much.