China proposes stricter national screen time limits on under 18s

The era of the smartphone, tablet and other connected devices is both a blessing and a curse of the 21st Century. Life is increasingly lived online, and screen addiction is becoming a huge issue worldwide, with children particularly affected. For a parent today, one of the biggest problems to be faced is how to control and limit a child’s screen time without completely shutting a child off from something that is such a key part of modern life.

China is no exception to this issue with at least 62 per cent of under 18s in China playing video games (2021 figures), but unlike in almost every other country, the Chinese authorities have taken steps in recent years to limit screen time for children. In 2021 the Chinese government announced that minors would be limited to playing online video games for a maximum of three hours a week and only between 8-9 pm on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. If a public holiday falls between Monday and Thursday then they are allowed an extra hour of gaming time.

In August of this year though, the Chinese government went even further and announced that under 18s would face further restrictions on their digital life. This time, not only would gaming time be limited, but all internet access for minors would be limited.

All minors would be blocked from accessing the internet between 10 pm and 6 am. Those between the ages of 16 to 18 would be allowed a maximum of two hours per day online. Those between the ages of 8 and 16 would be allowed one hour per day, while children under 8 would get just 40 minutes of internet usage per day.

Internet providers would be tasked with enforcing the new rules with the Cyberspace Administration of China declaring that providers must introduce a ‘Minor Mode’ programme. However, parents would be given the option of opting out of the time limits.

The announcement had an immediate and dramatic impact on share prices of Chinese tech firms and reaction among the public has been mixed.

China is not the only country in Asia to introduce legal measures to reduce child screen time. In Taiwan, parents can actually be fined if their children are deemed to be spending too much time staring at a screen, and Kagawa Prefecture in Japan has also introduced rules limiting screen time for minors. South Korea also had strict laws on when children were allowed to game online but in 2021 these laws were reduced to just recommendations.

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In Europe, no such restrictions exist, though controls of some form or another have been mooted in some countries, with France leading the way. In June of this year, the French government approved a new law that requires social media sites to verify users’ ages and obtain parental consent for those under 15 and to require sites to offer tools to limit the amount of time children spend on each site. Companies found to be in breach of the law will be fined a total of one per cent of their global revenues. The law, though, will take at least three years to come into force.

In the UK, there are no legal limits to child internet usage or screen time, but the NHS does issue recommendations, which can be seen here.

Filed Under: Briefing