This week it was announced that minors have been banned from playing games during the week in China. I read this and my initial thought was outrage. I grew up playing games as a young man and I wouldn’t be who I am today without them. However, I’m also a dad, and games have changed a lot from when I was a child. I think my opinion shifted slightly when I remembered that if I were a child today, I wouldn’t be playing Mario or Metroid on my Game Boy, I’d be playing Fortnite against thousands of other people online, and that’s why I don’t think this ban is such a bad thing.
When you’re growing up, you need your sleep. Kids are notorious for staying up just one more hour to play another round. I see this today in 18-year-olds who don’t sleep at night, have no job, and complain about their lives because they play games all the time. I don’t think that this would be drastically different if they had been banned from games in the week for 18 years, but maybe if they weren’t allowed to play them outside of weekends until they were 16 it would be better.
I feel like at 16-years-old, you’re serious about your education because it’s coming close to a potential endpoint. You know that if you work hard now, you can mess around all summer and come back to school for exams afterward. When you’re younger though, you’ll waste all your time playing games unless your parents crack down and steal the console or controllers until you’ve done your homework.
I think that the UK could do with a similar rule, because games have reached a point where they can ruin your start in life. You can always improve yourself through an apprenticeship or a job, but you don’t realize this until it’s too late. Being limited in how much you can play games will not only make you focus more on school, it’ll help you socialize and build relationships that will mean you may not want to spend all your spare time playing games when you’re older. I know this is a controversial topic, and maybe I’ll feel differently when my daughter is 5, but right now this is what I believe.
