‘They only have Fridays and weekends to play’: Video gaming rules begin in China with youngsters only allowed three hours online a week
On a recent Sunday evening in Beijing, a few minutes before 8pm, Huang Chong opened a Harry Potter video game on her smartphone and tried to play.
She couldn’t – by government decree.
A pop up appeared on her screen: “Dear players… Minors can only play online games between 8-9pm on Fridays, weekends and national festivals and holidays. Please arrange your playing time and have a rest.”
New rules in China mean that under 18s are only allowed to play three hours of online games per week, at those time specified.
Huang Chong and her father Huang Wen Shang are pictured together as they discuss the gaming rules in China
Even for a communist state that regulates its citizens lives far more than the West, it is a new extension of control. And that control is now being applied to different parts of society and culture, in a new crackdown.
Huang Chong, who is 15 years old, said she didn’t mind the video game policy too much but said that it’s “like banning smoking, drinking and playing mahjong for adults”.
“My friends send me messages to complain about the ban, that they only have Fridays and weekends to play one hour and they couldn’t socialise with their e-gaming friends,” she told Sky News.
The rules have been introduced to curb video gaming addiction.
Huang Chong said she didn’t have a problem with video gaming. But her father Huang Wen Shang disagreed – and was thankful for the state’s intervention.
“I tried to persuade her to give up the phone, but when’s she already lost in it, she feels happy,” he told Sky News. “She won’t realise she’s playing such a long time that it could affect her eyesight, her health, her studies.
Huang Chong said the policy was “like banning smoking, drinking and playing mahjong for adults”
“As parents, we need help from the outside – from teachers, from government policies.”
Video games are just one part of a new campaign by the Chinese Communist Party to re-assert its values over society.
The perceived hedonism of the last 20 years – you could also call it letting people do what they want – is being replaced by an emphasis on proper socialist values.
Film stars have been berated by the government for promoting what they call “fake, ugly and evil values” and actors have been mysteriously scrubbed from the Chinese internet without explanation.
The government has also introduced measures to curb “chaotic” online fan culture. Karaoke songs that “endanger national unity” or advocate “obscenity” have been blacklisted.
Schools now have bans on foreign textbooks and young students are required to read about “Xi Jinping Thought” – the nebulous official ideology of China’s leader that is enshrined in the constitution of the People’s Republic of China.
Huang Wen Shang agreed with the state’s intervention
And the country’s TV regulator told Chinese media to “resolutely resist showing off wealth and enjoyment” and to consider actors’ political and moral matters when selecting them.
It has also banned what it calls effeminate men from appearing on screens – using the offensive term “niang pao”, roughly translated as “sissy boys”, to describe them in its official announcement.
Activist Lu Ruihai’s group gives information and support to parents whose children have come out.
“Many people use ‘sissy boys’, an aggressive and derogatory word to label people who are not heterosexual, or do not have the typical and traditional sex relations,” he told Sky News.
“The whole LGBTQ community is numb. I think the policy affects negatively the young LGBTQ people who haven’t come out yet.”
Critics and supporters of the new rules have both interpreted them as far reaching – not just ad-hoc policy adjustments.
In an article that was widely republished in official state media, prominent blogger Li Guangman said it was a “profound” political change.
Activist Lu Ruihai is campaigning for information and support to parents whose children have come out
“This is also a return to the original intentions of the Chinese Communist Party… a return to the essence of socialism,” he wrote.
Public opinion would “no longer be a place to worship Western culture,” he wrote.
“Therefore, we need to control all the cultural chaos and build a lively, healthy, masculine, strong and people-oriented culture.”
Back at home, Huang Chong has had her hour of government-sanctioned playtime.
But there are ways around the new rules.
“Many pupils use adults’ phones to log into games,” she told Sky News.
“We’re cleverer. We climb over the firewall. It takes risk to climb over the firewall as it’s illegal. Few people succeed.”
Teenagers – and many other normal Chinese citizens – may now find themselves in such small skirmishes with the state.
World
Arrest warrants issued for Israeli PM Netanyahu and former defence secretary Gallant over alleged war crimes
Arrest warrants have been issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence secretary Yoav Gallant by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The warrants are for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the war in Gaza that Israel launched following the 7 October attacks by Hamas.
The prime minister’s office said the warrants against him and Gallant were “anti-semitic” and said Israel “rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions”.
Another warrant was issued for the arrest of Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al Masri for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Al Masri, also known as Mohammed Deif, was the mastermind behind the 7 October attacks.
It is unclear if he is still alive, following an airstrike that Israel claimed killed him earlier this year.
Neither Israel nor the US are members of the ICC. Israel has rejected the court’s jurisdiction and denies committing war crimes in Gaza.
Former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett said the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant were a “mark of shame” for the ICC.
The court originally said it was seeking arrest warrants for the three men in May for the alleged crimes and today announced that it had rejected challenges by Israel and issued warrants of arrest.
The new UK Labour government said in the summer it would not oppose the ICC’s right to issue the warrants.
Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the UN general assembly. Pic: Reuters
Warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant
In its update, the ICC said it found “reasonable grounds to believe” that Netanyahu and Gallant “bear criminal responsibility” for alleged crimes.
These, the court said, include “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts”.
Netanyahu previously spoke of his “disgust” at the suggestion the ICC would seek an arrest warrant for him.
Read more:
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A video released by Hamas in 2005 shows a man identified as Mohammed Deif. Pic: AP
Warrant for Hamas leader
The ICC also said it has issued an arrest warrant for Hamas leader Al Masri, saying it has “reasonable grounds to believe” that he is responsible for crimes against humanity including murder, extermination, torture, rape, as well as war crimes including taking hostages.
Discussing the 7 October attacks, the court said: “In light of the coordinated killings of members of civilians at several separate locations, the Chamber also found that the conduct took place as part of a mass killing of members of the civilian population, and it therefore concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the crime against humanity of extermination was committed.”
In its statement, the ICC said the prosecution was not in a position to determine whether Al Masri is dead or alive, so was issuing the arrest warrant.
The court previously said it was seeking an arrest warrant for Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas who was subsequently killed in July.
Four people have died and a number of others are in hospital after allegedly being served drinks laced with methanol.
According to reports, six British travellers are among those being treated in Laos, after falling ill last week.
Two Danish women in their 20s and a 56-year-old US citizen are reported to have died in what authorities fear was a mass poisoning.
On Thursday, it was confirmed an Australian woman – named as Bianca Jones, 19, from Melbourne – had become the fourth person to die.
Holly Bowles Pic: Facebook
Her friend Holly Bowles is being treated in hospital after calling for medical help at their accommodation, Nana’s Backpackers Hostel.
In a statement given to the Herald Sun, Ms Jones’s family said: “It is with the heaviest of hearts that we share the news that our beloved daughter and sister, Bianca Jones, has passed away.
“She was surrounded by love, and we are comforted by the knowledge that her incredible spirit touched so many lives during her time with us.
“We want to express our deepest gratitude for the overwhelming support, love, and prayers we’ve received from across Australia.”
Simone White Pic: Squire Patton Boggs
One of the British travellers being treated in hospital has been named as Simone White, 28, from Orpington, Kent.
According to The Times newspaper, she became ill last week in Vang Vieng – a resort popular with backpackers.
Ms White’s friend, Bethany Clarke, a healthcare worker also from Orpington, posted on a Laos Backpacking Facebook group to warn other travellers.
“Urgent – please avoid all local spirits. Our group stayed in Vang Vieng and we drank free shots offered by one of the bars,” she wrote.
“Just avoid them as so not worth it. Six of us who drank from the same place are in hospital currently with methanol poisoning.”
New Zealand’s Foreign Ministry also confirmed one of its citizens was also unwell in Laos and could be a victim of methanol poisoning.
Ukraine has fired British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles into Russia, a source has told Sky News.
The UK and Ukraine have not yet confirmed the use of the long-range weapons in Russia but their deployment has been widely reported in British media.
Footage has been posted on Telegram reportedly showing wreckage from one of the missiles in Russia’s Kursk region, which borders Ukraine.
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What are Storm Shadow missiles?
Ukraine war: Follow latest updates
The UK had previously said that British tanks, anti-tank missiles and other military equipment could be used inside Russia as part of Ukraine’s defence – but had kept restrictions on the use of long-range missiles.
It comes just days after US President Joe Biden authorised the same policy shift.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Tuesday that Ukraine had fired six US-supplied Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) in the Bryansk region.
A Russian state news agency cited the ministry as saying the missiles caused no casualties.
The missile is also called SCALP by French forces. File pic: AP
Missiles will have a ‘marginal effect’
Sky News’ security and defence editor Deborah Haynes says Ukraine’s allies have been pursuing a strategy of ambiguity and “it remains to be seen whether we get official confirmation on this from the UK or from Ukraine”.
“There is also the uncomfortable reality that Ukraine’s stockpile of Storm Shadow missiles is severely limited, so their use will only have a marginal effect.”
Meanwhile, Sky’s military analyst Sean Bell says he would be amazed if this attack really marks the first time such a missile has been used by Ukraine to hit inside Russia.
“I would be quite surprised if they haven’t been used for selected targets further on [into Russia] because they are… very, very effective at striking Russian logistics hubs, headquarters, ammunition dumps,” he said.
British forces used Storm Shadows in the Iraq war in 2003. File pic: Reuters
The same missiles are also used by French forces, using the alternative name SCALP, and are made by the Anglo-French arms manufacturer, MBDA.
Embassies shut over air attack fears
Earlier, the US and some other Western embassies in Kyiv closed amid fears Russia was preparing a major air attack on the Ukrainian capital.
Read more from Sky News:
Son of Norway’s crown princess in court
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Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had been asking Kyiv’s allies to give his troops the capability to strike deeper behind Russian lines for over a year.
Mr Biden’s change of policy is linked to changing tactics by the Russians, which began deploying North Korean ground troops to supplement its own forces.
The White House is set to announce more military aid for Ukraine worth up to $275m (£217m), the US defence secretary has said.
Lloyd Austin said the support would “meet critical battlefield needs” and would include munitions for rocket systems, artillery and tank weapons, along with anti-personnel landmines.
Russian politician Maria Butina and Donald Trump Jr, the son of US President-elect Donald Trump, both warned that Mr Biden’s decision over Ukraine’s usage of long-range missiles could spark the start of a third world war.
Vladimir Putin lowered the threshold required for the use of nuclear weapons after the US move, adding to fears the conflict could escalate.
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