By ELI LEE
Staff Writer
China is currently in the process of trying to limit the screen time of children, cutting younger ages down to only one hour a day, or seven hours a week.
Specifically one particular game titled “Honor of Kings,” created by popular gaming company, Tencent, is only allowing kids age 12 and under one hour of play time per day, after that they won’t be able to access the game.
Ages 12 through 18 are allowed two hours of play time. These changes to one of the most popular online game in China are in response to the concern of educators and health practitioners
Most health experts do say that screen time is especially bad for younger kids. They are not fully developed yet so they’re more prone to health problems as a result of staring at a screen the whole day, mainly eye and sight issues. So this movement by Tencent, is a good and bad one.
It’s good in relation to the health of children, and everyone in general. Prolonged screen time is a huge health issue that we don’t really pay attention to as a population.
We are constantly engrossed in technology, using it every chance we get, never putting it down.
As a result we are always in front of some sort of screen. Which in reality, isn’t good for anyone’s health.
This opinion is coming from someone who used to spend almost six hours a day in front of a screen playing video-games. Limiting screen time is a healthy thing for all people to do, especially kids.
Technology is useful and beneficial in a lot of ways, but like every other thing in this world it should be limited to an extent. Especially if the screen time kids do have is spent playing a game.
Screen time could be better utilized through educational aspects or uses. Video-games are beneficial emotionally and in other cognitive ways but should be limited as a result of the health concerns. Even professional gamers, people who are in front of screens the whole day as a job usually wear special glasses which make staring at a screen easier on their eyes.
These movements by companies may be bad as a result of the liberty implications they have. Limiting screen time is a dangerous thing to think about doing, especially in a country like China where its people experience less freedom than most other powerful nations in the world.
This first limit of screen time was done by a private company of their own accords. It’s their game and they made the choice to limit it for younger kids.
If the government steps in and tries to limit screen time themselves that could be a huge breach of freedom.
It would be legislation that is meant to benefit the people in regards to their health, but to tell people how long they can use their computer, phone, or be in front of any other screen would be a huge blow to rights of humans everywhere. That is controlling very personal aspects of people’s lives. It’s almost like if you mandated everyone had to be physically active a certain amount of time every day.
Yes, it’s something that in reality is beneficial to people’s health, but for a government to dictate ones lifestlye choice to a point like that, its unheard off.
This isn’t something that’s actually happening as of now, but companies like this limiting things opens the door and discussion for it to possibly happen eventually.
Screen time should be controlled by the people. The parents should be the ones limiting the screen time for their children, they should be aware of the health issues and control technology use accordingly.
Something like this shouldn’t fall to private companies or the government.
