[News] Kagawa Prefecture passes law restricting video game playtime to 1 hour a day

[pkmin3033]

This is something that has been floating around for a while now but as of today has been made official: in the Kagawa Prefecture in Japan, those under the age of 18 are now restricted to playing 1 hour of video games per day, and 90 minutes at weekends, in an effort to curb video game and internet addiction. Whilst the responsibility lies with the household to ensure this is adhered to, and it has been toned down significantly to be more of a rough guide than an outright restriction, this is nonetheless the first time a local council has passed a bill of this nature. Source here.

What are your thoughts on this? Is this a good way to combat what is seen as an increasingly serious and dangerous problem, or yet another ineffectual token gesture to respond to concerns? Did you have your playtime on a game restricted by your parents whilst you were growing up/do you have it restricted now? Will this spread beyond Kagawa to other parts of Japan, or even the West?

 

[EnglishALT]

I just saw that, the law has no teeth and is supposed to be enforced by the parents. Right now with school out, and the parents working until 7 or 8 at night, I cannot see how this is enforceable. I honestly doubt this law will see the reduction of Minecraft and Fortnite play by elementary school students here.

 

[Reyzadren]

Nope from me.

There are (educational) video games out there that blur the lines between a video game and a teaching software/app. In fact, I played these games as a kid, and I sure did learn a lot from them.

 

[LucarioBread]

Yea, from the practical stand point, there's no way to enforce it. What are they going to do, assign a law official to every household to monitor the kid? However, given the japanese mentality, I can see many families respecting this "law". Whether I agree with it or not... eh. It seems a bit too restrictive and I believe it's a parent's job, not the law's when it comes to this sort of stuff, but I can't say it has bad intentions.

 

[Cherrim]

I think it's maybe a bit excessive for everyone under the age of 18, but I like the idea of the bill. Kids generally aren't good at dividing their time and especially when they're young, they should be supervised very carefully on screens.

When my parents finally allowed video games in the house, we had very similar rules. We weren't allowed video games at all through the week, but we could have an hour each on Fridays and then 90 minutes each day on the weekend. I was 8 and my brother was 3 and although at the time I thought they were dreadfully unfair, looking back, I think I would consider similar rules for my kids if I ever had them.

It's basically impossible to enforce this for older children in their teens, but I think for kids under 13 this is a good guideline to follow. Depending on the game, you could be more or less strict, but that opens the door to talk to your kids about what they're playing and whether it's a more creative game that might actually help with their growth (Minecraft, etc.) or just something mindless that wastes their time. As they get older, you probably can't really make them do anything, but if you've fostered good habits from a younger age, hopefully they'll stick.

I do wish this applied to all screens and not singling out video games, though. There are a lot of games for children that are educational and get them thinking creatively, and I don't think there's anything wrong with sneaking in a bit more playtime for things like that, but even a lot of bad video games are probably better than mindlessly watching TV.

 

[colours]

don't consoles these days come with some sort of pre-built in parental control of some sort to actually limit playing time? or am i missing something? unless it's just a Switch/Nintendo thing?

 

[Uragirimono]

I feel as if it'll cause some kids to rebel, fight with their parents or worse...of course that's only if said parents even bother with the law at all.
It's honestly not too good of an idea and I hope it doesn't spread elsewhere.

 

[machomuu]

How to stifle creativity in one fell swoop