back to article China to crush secondary market providing forbidden gaming accounts to kids

China's National Internet Information Office has revisited some of the government's recent internet crackdowns, to put a stop to workarounds such as renting or selling accounts for online games to minors in order to circumvent the three-hours-per-week play time imposed by Beijing. China's lawmakers introduced the play time …

  1. lglethal Silver badge
    Trollface

    Clickbait banned!?!

    Oh no, then El reg will almost certainly be banned in China....

    (if it isn't already...)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Clickbait banned!?!

      It isn't. However, its use of Google Analytics breaks the layout, because those bits of the pages are banned and won't load.

  2. Gene Cash Silver badge

    "online gangs, consisting largely of teenage females, battle to assert their ardor for the celebrity of their choice"

    I hate it when that happens.

    1. Chris G

      Online gangs of teenaged females

      At least that's better than the school aged groupies we had to deal with when I worked for some pop stars in the seventies.

      They would climb over the (high) garden walls and would frequently offer themselves to the star of their dreams.

      We had a hot line to the local nick who would send a police woman or two to deal with them.

      Hysterical teenies are not easy to deal with online or off.

      1. hoola Silver badge

        Re: Online gangs of teenaged females

        And a WPC can grab the parts that a PC cannot!

        (although that has probably changed now....)

    2. Throatwarbler Mangrove Silver badge
      Paris Hilton

      Unlike in the West where online gangs, consisting largely of teenage males, battle to assert their ardor for the waifu of their choice. Although, come to think of it, this probably happens in the East as well.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Psssssst, hey kid!

    Wanna buy some extra gaming time?

    (Opens jacket)

  4. Michael Hoffmann Silver badge
    Facepalm

    What's Mandarin...

    ... for "whack-a-mole"?

  5. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

    been there

    My dad imposed similar rules on the old 8bit back in about '83

    1 hour every other day!

    It didnt really work

    1. Version 1.0 Silver badge
      Happy

      Re: been there

      I imposed a ban on Computer game playing after spending nearly an entire day every week playing Adventure back in those days ... I totally stopped wasting time at work after my ban went into effect.

      I did not impose the same ban on my family but I did tell them about my gaming addiction problems - I thought the weird thing was that I'd grown up inhaling and ingesting a huge variety of fun things (I still remember Orange Sunshine - icon) as a teenager but I never had any addition issues at all until I installed Adventure on my PDP-11 at work in the early 80's.

      1. Sixtiesplastictrektableware

        Re: been there

        Me three. Never looked at it as addiction ('til now), but a similar experience maybe 10yrs back when I stumbled on a copy of Lode Runner. That was difficult to put down, no funning.

        Likewise (thanks for the memories) regarding the Orange Sunshine. To this very moment my diet consists of leafy green roughage. No cravings like that old game, though.

        I bought all 3 Mass Effect games in 2018. I promised myself not to play them until I finish this 7 year long project I'm wrestling with. I suspect if I do, the project is titsup.

        It's up to yourself to know the skin you're in.

    2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: been there

      >My dad imposed similar rules on the old 8bit back in about '83

      I hope you reported him as a Communist

    3. Sandtitz Silver badge

      Re: been there

      My dad took the video cable between C64 and television.

      It worked.

      1. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

        Re: been there

        my dad took the rotor arm out of my cars distributor

        didnt work - the one in my mums car fitted just right

  6. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge
    Big Brother

    while a bit misguided what Beijing is doing sounds well intentioned.

    Cant wait to get my dictatorship.

    I wish that Kim Jung bloke would let me have a go on his.

    *although I realise "letting someone else have a go" is breaking rule #1 in Dictatorship101

    1. Joe W Silver badge

      I certainly did not vote for you!

      1. Tomislav

        No need for a vote, a watery tart threw a sword at him :)

  7. Potemkine! Silver badge

    That's may be harder than throwing tanks on the Tiananmen Square and crush people under the their tracks.

  8. elsergiovolador Silver badge

    Modus operandi

    That's modus operandi of pretty much any communist / socialist regime.

    Create a problem and then relentlessly try to "solve it".

    1. Jimmy2Cows Silver badge

      Re: Modus operandi

      All well and good, except gaming addiction is a genuine problem, one that is deliberately used and exacerbated by game studios to sell more product. Especially the freemium games with their online purchases for season passes, loot boxes and all that other worthless crap.

      [Edited for typos]

      1. elsergiovolador Silver badge

        Re: Modus operandi

        Especially the freemium games with their online purchases for season passes, loot boxes and all that other worthless crap.

        The correct way to go about it would be to simply ban such business model. If you allow companies to push products with addictive mechanisms built in, then you get people addicted to it.

        Simply adding restrictions just make it even more attractive - the forbidden fruit effect plus use of addictive design patterns only exacerbates the problem and creates black market.

      2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: Modus operandi

        > except gaming addiction is a genuine problem,

        But this proves it can't be.

        The evil communist Chinese dictators are banning it

        They are bad

        Therefore gaming must be good and proud patriots must encourage their kids to play NinjaStormingDeath4K 24 hours a day

    2. Thomas Steven 1

      Re: Modus operandi

      I'll see your 'War on Drugs' and raise you a 'War on Terror'

      1. elsergiovolador Silver badge

        Re: Modus operandi

        I'll see your 'War on Terror' and raise you a 'War on self-employment'.

        It's just starting, but soon only way to put food on your table will be zero rights employment at big corporations if you don't belong to the higher class or the party.

        1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

          Re: Modus operandi

          It's not slavery, it's 'lifetime internship'

          With the bonus that you don't have to feed or house the slaves gig-workers

  9. Metro-Gnome
    Pint

    Replace Cyber with Alcohol

    If you reflect on a thing which has up sides and massive social involvement but also is known to do bad things to some and generally not very great things to others. limiting exposure by age restrictions, operating hours and policing black-markets, this looks a lot like most governments approaches to alcohol.

    The gaming and social media genies are out of the bottles, better regulate now than bury heads and deny the potential harms ad infinitum

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Replace Cyber with Alcohol

      But alcohol is terribly bad for the human body upto an age of 6.62E8 seconds, at which point it becomes wonderful

      1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

        Re: Replace Cyber with Alcohol

        I think you'll find that number varies geographically. In some parts of the world it is infinity.

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