By William Siu, Illustration: Irene Suosalo, The New York Times, October 2, 2022
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California has just signed legislation that would require social media companies to make sure new products won’t be harmful to minors. The focus is on Big Tech and social media apps like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Flying under the radar are video games even though kids in the United States spend much more time playing video games than engaging in social media, according to a recent Common Sense Media report.
Last year, China acted: It prohibited minors from playing video games on school days and more than an hour on weekend and holiday nights. Teenagers then flocked to livestreaming platforms to watch others play their favorite games, so a new crackdown bars children from watching livestreams after 10 p.m. The goal is to reduce addiction to gaming or, as the Chinese government calls it, “spiritual opium,” because of concerns about how it harms mental health and academic study.
Such bans may sound outrageous even for an authoritarian country like China. But as a gaming entrepreneur in the United States for 13 years and a father of two young daughters, I don’t think parents are doing enough to protect kids from the potential harms of video games.
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