China Looking To Limit Smartphone Use For Children With a Two Hour Cap

Smartphones are a fantastic piece of technology enabling us to communicate, listen to music, and watch videos all in one tiny device, however, it also seems that a device designed to connect us has also made us more anti-social, especially with the younger generations like myself. The Chinese government seems to think this is a problem and is reportedly looking to impose time limit caps for children under the age of 18.

China Smartphone Time Limit Caps

As reported by Engadget, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has proposed some new rules surrounding time limits for children when using their smartphones. The limits propose that 16 and 17-year-olds would be limited to 2 hours a day, whilst 8-15-year-olds would be limited to one hour and those under 8 at 40 minutes. This regulation would require phones to have an easy-to-access mode for parents and internet providers to restrict what children see to news, education and age-appropriate media. This all comes from concerns around addictive behaviours with prolonged usage of phones and mobile devices. Currently this is only a draft and is still open to public consultation and could possibly never come into play.

With the existence of TikTok and other short-form content, I can see the reasoning behind this plan as I’ve often found myself losing hours bingeing YouTube shorts and it’s not a good feeling as an adult but for kids, it can be detrimental. I’m not going to advocate for the government to inflict limits on devices as that infringes upon our freedom, but more needs to be done in terms of education on technology and social media. It always surprises how tech ignorant some people are especially considering how important tech is in the modern world. It’s insane when parents just give a kid an iPad and give them free rein to just sit and binge TikTok for hours, especially with some of the rubbish that is on there. The same can be said for pornography, teenagers are bound to stumble upon it eventually and that can lead to a problematic addiction that is not spoken about anywhere near as much as it should be.