As a mom, I need to monitor the content of my son’s time on the Net more than just the amount of time
Print Edition
When I posted the news that Tencent will allow only 14 hours in total for children to play its video games over the 14 days of this year’s Spring Festival holiday, some of my friends and colleagues breathed a sigh of relief, as did I.
Can any child resist the seduction of playing video games? Not one that I know of.
What I see is that with a mobile phone or a tablet at hand, young people can indulge themselves in the gaming world for hours, turning a blind eye to everything else.
Predictably, Tencent’s decision caused offense. Some minors call it “the most miserable winter break” as for them, Tencent games can be accessed only between 8pm and 9pm each day from last Friday.
It was taken for granted that video games need stricter rules to regulate.
I fully agree.
But on second thoughts, I think the problem may not be the time but the content.
Why are parents worried? For me, I see there is too much violence in some popular games. They are poisonous — no matter for children or adults.
Such content is not in games only but in books, dramas and films. But the idea of limiting video game time in the hope of saving children from harm is too rash. What if children make full use of this one hour and play such games? One hour each day is enough itself to cause problems.
In Chinese, we have a saying: water can drown boats but it can also float them. That is a double-edge sword.
Games are considered important as an educational tool. In some European countries, Minecraft is included in the school curriculum.
So the game itself is not essential in this debate. It is about the content.
That was reinforced after I attended a lecture on the metaverse hosted by the School of Management at Fudan University last week.
The metaverse is taking shape in real life, with people wearing special equipment to enter a world, in my understanding, very similar to the interface of Minecraft or any other sites in an interactive game.
Xu Zhengchuan, a professor with the management school, said we are just at the beginning of the metaverse.
What should be done is to offer qualified content, and allow children to play as they wish, while ensuring they stay healthy. That may herald a good start to the winter holidays for all.
For my 13-year-old son, we have agreed on a 20-minute break after playing good games, with time set aside for study, exercise and sleep.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
