In the current Chinese context, "games" often point to electronic games. During the 20 years of rapid development of informatization in China, "games" have been repeatedly disputed by "Internet addiction" and "electronic opium". On June 1, 2021, the newly revised law of the people's Republic of China on the protection of minors (hereinafter referred to as the "law on the protection of minors") was implemented, focusing on increasing and improving the relevant regulations to prevent minors from indulging in games, and putting forward requirements for the real identity authentication of minors' participation in online games and the restriction on the length of games. This is known on the Internet as "the most strict anti addiction policy in history".
One year after the implementation of the new regulations, the dispute over "games" continues.
Changed children
After half a year, Wen Jie often remembered that her daughter had charged more than 3000 yuan to the game without authorization, and her family suddenly became a battlefield: her husband beat her daughter, and her daughter went on a hunger strike. At that moment, she felt as if she had "lost her daughter". Her daughter has become "so cold and strange".
She attributed these misfortunes to her daughter's addiction to "games".
A similar thing happened at zhanghaining's home in a village in Northern Fujian. In the summer of 2020, Zhang Haining accidentally found out that his bank card had more than 2000 yuan of game expenses in half a year. He called his 10-year-old son Yangyang to ask him seriously. Yangyang hesitated and admitted, "I charged 50 or 100 times at a time and deleted all the fee withholding messages."
From then on, zhanghaining banned his son from playing mobile games. His son promised, "in fact, he is trying his best to steal games." The house was so noisy.
In order to prevent his son from stealing, zhanghaining hid his old mobile phone in the cabinet, jar and clothes. But they were found out by their sons. The son will also come to the mobile phone for reasons such as reading school notices and checking subject assignments. On several occasions, zhanghaining was playing games when he caught the child.
"What can we do? The most we can do is criticize." Zhanghaining said, "the child said he couldn't do his homework. He had to check it on the Internet with his mobile phone. I couldn't help but check it for him."
Wen Jie felt an "unprecedented despair". In April this year, while washing clothes for her daughter, Wen Jie accidentally washed a piece of paper left in her jeans pocket. "It says the QQ number given to her by her classmates." The daughter picked up a stool, broke it, scolded Wen Jie for some "very dirty words", and slammed the door and went away.
Wen Jie is heartbroken. In her impression, Xiaohui would clean the table, cook noodles for herself and sell shoes with her just after primary school. Wen Jie believes that video games have changed her daughter.
Where does "addiction" come from
Why are children "addicted" to video games? Sunhongyan, director of the children's Institute of China Youth Research Center, explained at the "5th Tencent game developers conference" that video games are a social platform for modern teenagers. He wants to socialize with his friends by playing games.
"The levels and goals in the game are very clear. If you kill this monster, you will be promoted to a higher level. Set a small goal and reward it continuously after it is achieved, which can stimulate the secretion of more dopamine." Shangjunjie, an associate professor of the school of education of Peking University, once analyzed that the reason why children love playing video games is to enjoy the attendant physiological stimulation.
Rao Yichen, a doctor of anthropology at the University of Hong Kong, has done a field survey related to "Internet addicted teenagers". He believes that the design of many popular games at present "takes advantage of the weakness of human nerves", and each game gives people a "short, flat and fast" stimulus, which is more difficult for children to resist. Accordingly, children tend to get caught up in video games.
When communicating with "Internet addicts", Rao Yichen found that most of them could objectively realize that they had spent too much time or money on video games, "just couldn't help it."
Twenty years of "anti addiction"
In fact, China began to supervise and manage the participation of teenagers in video games as early as 20 years ago. At first, however, these attempts had little effect.
In recent years, a number of Internet companies have reached cooperation with the Ministry of public security on the identity authentication system, and the situation has improved.
In October, 2019, the State Press and Publication Administration issued the notice on preventing minors from indulging in online games, stating that "from 22:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. the next day, online game enterprises shall not provide game services to minors in any form", "for users aged 8 to 16, the single recharge amount shall not exceed 50 yuan, and the cumulative monthly recharge amount shall not exceed 200 yuan".
On August 30, 2021, the State Press and Publication Administration issued the notice on further strict management to effectively prevent minors from indulging in online games, proposing that "all online game enterprises can only provide one hour service to minors from 20:00 to 21:00 every day on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays" and "shall not provide game services to users who have not registered or logged in their real names in any form."
This is called "the most strict anti addiction policy in history" by the industry.
In line with the policy, large domestic game companies such as Tencent and NetEase have launched parent supervision platforms. For example, parents can bind their children's game accounts through Tencent's "growth Guardian platform" to monitor their children's game behavior in real time. According to Tencent insiders, the system will require face recognition authentication when suspected minor users log in or consume; For the night login behavior of real name users over 55 years old, the system will also enable face recognition to prevent minors from falsely using their parents' accounts or devices.
Correct Game Education
Times have changed, Wen Jie sighs. When she was young, her entertainment with her partners was limited to rope skipping and other activities, or shopping. Today, their children have been immersed in electronic technology and the Internet since they were born. Parents are worried about the future.
Liumengfei, a scholar, believes that "because they don't understand video games, parents can only hope that their children will stay away from them completely and don't play anything. This is impossible in modern society, so what is left to parents is a sense of powerlessness."
In 2015, liumengfei opened the first domestic game research course "game research and Gamification" in Beijing Normal University, focusing on electronic game research and decontamination.
"Now when we talk about electronic games, we say they are electronic opium and electronic heroin. In fact, the game industry is very complex and diverse." Liumengfei believes that the games on the market can be divided into consumer games and work games, and different types of games should have different management methods.
"Many good games come from works games, which can bring spiritual touch and express knowledge, culture and aesthetics." Liumengfei said that since the rapid development of information technology for more than 20 years, real work games have been very rare. Therefore, in addition to supervising the setting of the anti addiction system, the relevant departments should also give appropriate support to the works of the game, "so that the game education and game research have a more formal system."
"The emergence of electronic games is the trend of the times. We should not go against the trend. What we can do is to let schools give children correct game education, cultivate their game aesthetics, game time view and game consumption view, and let them realize what games are good and what games are bad. In this way, the so-called Internet addiction problem in society may be greatly improved." Liumengfei said that this can also change the powerlessness of the parent group.
(Wenjie and zhanghaining are pseudonyms)