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China Games

China Wants Its Youth To Stop Giving Livestreamers Money (theregister.com) 81

China's internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), has published guidelines that aim to stop minors from giving tips or other forms of payment to livestreamers, watching after 10pm, or livestreaming themselves. The Register reports: "Website platforms must not develop functional applications that attract minors to tip or induce minors to give 'gifts.' If it is found that the website platform violates the aforementioned requirements, measures such as suspending the tipping function and shutting down the live broadcast business will be implemented," said the recently published Opinions on Regulating Online Live Rewards and Strengthening the Protection of Minors (in Chinese). The opinions were issued jointly by China's Central Civilization Office, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, and State Internet Information Office. The focus was to "persist in taking the socialist core values as the guide."

If minors try to circumvent the rules and use adult accounts, the platforms may be responsible for providing refunds. [...] Beijing's qualm with livestreaming and its tech is that the practice can result in physical and mental health issues, as well as create "social problems." [...] There is also concern that teenagers will spend their evenings staying up late online and therefore not have sufficient rest time, hence the 10pm curfew.

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China Wants Its Youth To Stop Giving Livestreamers Money

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  • by klipclop ( 6724090 ) on Monday May 09, 2022 @09:09PM (#62518382)
    With the never ending lockdowns in China, I think it's safe to say we're watching the CCP wheels come off in real time. Only incompetent bureaucrats would worry about something so trivial when their are bigger problems at stake. I hope the USA and the west are watching China's financial and economic situation closely. If they time things right and pull out the rug at the right moment, we might be able to cause a soviet collapse type situation in China.
    • Re: (Score:1, Troll)

      How many people have died of COVID in China? What they have demonstrated is that if you are willing to sacrifice its possible to close down the virus with minimal loss of human life. As for this story, it shows they are committed to children's well-being at the expense of business interests. That is trivial only in America. You want to see a collapse - just let China stop sending its stuff here for us to buy. Talk about empty shelves. Not to mention businesses unable to function because of a lack of parts
      • by SlashDotCanSuckMy777 ( 6182618 ) on Monday May 09, 2022 @09:48PM (#62518430)

        They'll be in lock down forever then.

      • by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Monday May 09, 2022 @10:29PM (#62518476)

        if you are willing to sacrifice its possible to close down the virus

        Nope. All China is doing is delaying the inevitable. Eventually, they will have to end the lockdowns, then the virus will spread and they will be in the same situation as everyone else.

        they are committed to children's well-being

        They are committed to shutting down communication channels not controlled by the CCP.

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Eventually, they will have to end the lockdowns, then the virus will spread and they will be in the same situation as everyone else.

          I don't think that's inevitable. Many other highly infectious diseases have been successfully controlled. Just because most of the West seems to have given up even trying doesn't mean nobody else can do it.

        • by quenda ( 644621 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2022 @05:58AM (#62518912)

          All China is doing is delaying the inevitable.

          Yes and no. It is inevitable that covid will become endemic, but by delaying it they have actually saved millions of lives.
          Because with vaccines and better treatments, and possibly Omicron being "milder", they will not suffer anywhere near what Europe and US did.
          We are seeing evidence of that in Australia and other places that delayed Covid, and now have low hospitalisation rates, with few deaths to date.

          But while their earlier success had benefits, the calculus has changed. Continuing the zero-covid police now certainly seems to be doing far more harm than good.

          • by DarkOx ( 621550 )

            Because with vaccines and better treatments, and possibly Omicron being "milder", they will not suffer anywhere near what Europe and US did.

            For that to be entirely true they'd have to use the best vaccines and treatments. So far it looks like nationalistic pride has them using the domestically researched and produced variations of these things. They probably will benefit from Omicron being milder, in terms of lives but from an economic perspective its would have been better to have crippling shut downs in the reivew mirror like their international peers.

            • by quenda ( 644621 )

              For that to be entirely true they'd have to use the best vaccines and treatments.

              The Chinese vaccines may not be quite as good as the mRNA vaccines, but they are good enough. The bigger problem is the large number of older Chinese who are not vaccinated at all, due to misplaced fears.

              • by dgatwood ( 11270 )

                For that to be entirely true they'd have to use the best vaccines and treatments.

                The Chinese vaccines may not be quite as good as the mRNA vaccines, but they are good enough. The bigger problem is the large number of older Chinese who are not vaccinated at all, due to misplaced fears.

                Not quite as good? I wouldn't go that far.

                • Sinovac's effectiveness in older adults is 74.1% effective [medrxiv.org] against severe disease and death, which means that 25.9% of cases still result in severe disease or death.
                • Moderna's (in adults) is 90% [cdc.gov] against hospitalization, so only 10% still result in hospitalization.

                Assuming that "severe disease and death" and "hospitalization" are roughly comparable, then you would expect 2.59 times as many deaths with Sinovac, give or take. That's a long way from "not quite as good

          • I'm not sure it's really clear beyond reasonable doubt that Omicron is milder. It just struck mostly in regions where the elderly and at risk population have been severely hammered by previous incarnations of SARS-CoV-2 and/or well vaccinated. Amongst a populace of zero tolerance it might well be found to be as lethal as Delta...
          • No, they really haven't. At all.
        • by dfghjk ( 711126 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2022 @09:34AM (#62519320)

          "Eventually, they will have to end the lockdowns, then the virus will spread and they will be in the same situation as everyone else."

          Except for potentially all the death. Also, this outcome cannot be separated from the fact that the US led the world in not taking the virus seriously. We cannot know what the outcome would have been had the response been responsible rather than political and sociopathic.

          I'd rather face the spread now with effective treatments and vaccines than in 2020 when a large part of the response was mass graves, but you're the expert ShanghaiBill.

          "They are committed to shutting down communication channels not controlled by the CCP."

          Not mutually exclusive of the comment you are responding to. Authoritarianism is not exclusive of well-being.

        • by shanen ( 462549 )

          The place to enter basic concurrence? But so far no one has mentioned the Winter Olympics that killed the Zero Covid policy. At least that's my interpretation, though I admit that I also believe there is something about Omicron's transmission that we have yet to figure out. Simplest theory is a long dormancy period where it can't be detected by any of the existing tests.

          So it comes down to Xi being too embarrassed to admit he screwed up by hosting the Winter Olympics. That's the problem with dictatorships.

      • by Albinoman ( 584294 ) on Monday May 09, 2022 @11:13PM (#62518524)
        That's a good question. Do you really think China is gonna actually say the correct answer? Do you think the people lower down in the party are actually going to tell the higher ranking the truth? It's much more likely that each step up the ladder is embellishing to the next one up. It's how the CCP has functioned since the start. Just look at the massive famine during the "Great Leap Forward". Mao would set higher and higher grain quotas and taxes and those below him would lie about meeting those goals and starve the peasant population to meet expectations.
      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        China didn't even sacrifice much. They had short, sharp lockdowns that were a lot less disruptive than the long ones that Europe had to endure. In return for that, wearing masks and mass testing, the majority of Chinese citizens were able to continue life pretty much as normal.

        The borders were semi closed. Citizens could come and go, but had to self isolate on return.

        Now Shanghai is turning into a humanitarian disaster, but that doesn't mean they got it wrong initially. It's possible they did it right and n

    • by youngone ( 975102 ) on Monday May 09, 2022 @10:31PM (#62518478)

      I hope the USA and the west are watching China's financial and economic situation closely. If they time things right and pull out the rug at the right moment, we might be able to cause a soviet collapse type situation in China.

      Every time I see someone post something about China is going to collapse, or the CCP is going to fail, or there will be a war I know that person does not understand China's relationship with the West at all.

      In the 1990's, Beijing decided to open up their economy to Western investment, and to give Western companies (some) access to the consumer market there, but with very strict rules, and they made it quite clear that the rules might change at any time.
      Western companies fell all over themselves to take advantage of a cheap source of labour and a new market of a billion potential customers.
      If it all falls over now, guess who loses out?

      The vast corporation I work for (for instance) makes nearly $1 billion in profits from China every year. Do you think the shareholders want to give that up?

      • The vast corporation I work for (for instance) makes nearly $1 billion in profits from China every year. Do you think the shareholders want to give that up?

        Of course not, but they will either way it just depends under whose terms.

        You said yourself it was made quite clear the rules may change at any time, including seizure/transfer of assets/ownership.

        Companies that do business in china for the cheaper labour/widgets will make money in the short term, but are shooting themselves in the head in the long term. Rule of law goes out the window when it's convenient or profitable for the party.

        • Companies that do business in china for the cheaper labour/widgets will make money in the short term, but are shooting themselves in the head in the long term.

          You should let Tim Apple know about that then, because he seems to have bet the company's future on China.

          Also every other big corporation, because they're all doing business with China and would love to hear your insights.

    • Employes at a chinese sweatshop that manufactures for Apple already revolted and overrun the guards that were holding them captive in the factory, so i agree and hope with you that the people of china overthrow the CCP and establish some sort of democratic government
    • Found the streamer. Stopping kids from giving these people money is an accidental win in my book as is anything that refutes the idea that there's any value to it.
      • There is no value in entertainment? And yet it is a huge industry. Huh.
        • Oh there's value in entertainment and I can understand people watching eSports. A random person playing games and people just watching, I can even see that to a degree but to pay them money for it? No I don't understand that. If you're an adult and you want to then fine, do whatever you want I guess but I don't think it's a bad thing to stop kids from doing it.
      • by Anonymous Coward

        I reluctantly admit that this is a move from the CCP that can only do at least some good for the whole world.

    • Maybe, but it'll be many decades before the CCP is really in any tangible trouble.

      What I read from this is a failure of the education system in China. That is, as a kid growing up these days, you need to be taught the differences between real physical property, rented/leased physical property, proprietary virtual property and "transferrable" virtual property (eg. cryptocurrency). You also need to know a lot more about personal finance, such as what you earn versus what you can spend, credit and so on. I gue

    • Hey look at that other country and see how bad they are with freedom, they are just being a nanny state where people have no rights....
      Hey look at these bad people in our country, they are doing things that I don't like, and I think it is harmful, we need to put a stop to them right now...

      I am not saying that the United States and China in terms of freedoms is equal. However, just pointing out how easy it is for a person to push for a reduction of freedoms, just because you are scared of the other guy and

    • Not defending China, but I'm never a fan of "isn't there a more pressing topic?" argument. Especially on a website like Slashdot where people should understand hyperthreading, multi-cores, etc.

      What bigger problems should the Cyberspace Administration of China be focusing on?
    • by DarkOx ( 621550 )

      I think this is failure of imagination on your part. What you miss is that everything the CCP does and is able to accomplish is largely underpinned by a strong sense of collectivism.

      Chinese communism is not like Marxism we read about in school. Its more like economics of fascism mixed with the rhetoric of Marxism garnished with a bit of good old fashion tribal/racial supremacy.

      It allows them to do things like continue massive lock downs and covid-0 policies no matter how ridiculous they appear because eve

      • by jemmyw ( 624065 )

        I think you have one thing backwards. Russia's economy was already a basketcase, as you said, but this means that economic sanctions have less immediate effect because they were already slightly disconnected from the rest of the world's economy and already dealing with a declining system. It seems likely Russia's economy would still slowly tank even without sanctions due to demographic difficulties, loss of funding in their education system, brain drain etc.

        China is a lot more integrated and dependent on a

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Technically, it has always been "after 10pm" ever since the first day of Earth's existence. Someone let CAC know that they might want to specify a "range" of times instead of a single point.

    • ... a single point ...

      China is a big and broad country just like the USA. Unlike the USA, the entire country sets all their clocks to the same time. Also China, at the moment, isn't declaring other countries have to obey their internet rules.

      • by gtall ( 79522 )

        Yes isn't at the moment declaring other countries have to obey their internet rules, that's true. But if you pay attention to what they are doing in internet governance agencies, they have every intention of doing that. If they don't, then the risk the truth seeping into China and that's the last thing the CCP can stand.

  • As a blanket ban that sounds fine, if one defines minors as under 13. Between 13 and 18 there should be strict regulation, but not a ban.

  • get rid of the livestreaming platform altogether? Just like Instagrammers, they need to get real jobs.
    • get rid of the livestreaming platform altogether? Just like Instagrammers, they need to get real jobs.

      And those who stream for fun? Because of your arbitrary definition of a "real job," screw them too?
      If you are able to make enough to live off of, or enough with another job to live off of, it's a real job, period.
      This "real job" elitism isn't smart or clever, it just makes the one expounding it look like they're pretentious AND stupid, IMO.

  • Correct (Score:1, Troll)

    by barcarolle ( 581253 )
    They're right. Just because it's China, and they have a Communist Party, doesn't make this policy completely correct. Minors have no business paying or tipping "livestreamers", no matter where they live.
  • If you can't get rid of Covid, take up the fight against influenzas.

  • Russia man bad. China man bad. Keep toeing the party line! I kind of admire how China's leadership seem to be putting children's welfare & education ahead of immediate profits for tech corporations. Imagine if the Whitehouse threatened to shut down social media companies if they continued to do or ignore illegal activities? Or if America did as much as China to protect children from tech exploitation, e.g. They recently banned private, extra-curricula, online language learning services, which was big bu
    • Thing is there really are evil people in the world, and sometimes they run entire nations. Your, "well, at least they got the trains running on time" argument falls as flat now as it did when it was made for Mussolini.
      • I think you've misunderstood my comments. If you'd like to condemn people as evil, why not take a long hard look at the USA's history & roles in the world. It's all too easy to succumb to the fundamental attribution bias, i.e. They do it because they're evil but we do it because it's justified by the circumstances.
        • "We did bad stuff so everyone else can keep doing it too"
          • Ah, enough with the straw-man arguments. That isn't what I've argued & you know it. You're effectively arguing that if we all do bad things then it's OK to do bad things - Can't you see the category error with that? You're still stuck with this "good vs. evil" dichotomous fallacy, which in itself is divisive (Are you a religious extremist or something?). The truth is that geopolitics are never simple black-&-white situations. Blithely accepting the messages you're being fed from whichever news outle
      • > Thing is there really are evil people in the world, and sometimes they run entire nations.

        Evil, like the religious kind? I'm really curious what you mean by evil?

  • That's actually not too bad of an idea. Sounds a bad implementation, and questionable ethics - people's ability to take responsibility is demonstrably not a function of age. It's also done on spurious grounds, there's nothing socialist about banning micropayments. It may be Chinese values, but there's nothing socialist about China either.

  • I have a ton of NFTs of which I don't even own the original pictures.

  • To all the kids who think there is such a thing as "Democratic Socialism", or that Socialism is ever anything but a malicious dictatorship, take note.
  • by indytx ( 825419 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2022 @07:58AM (#62519080)

    In the U.S. there are old white men, and in China there are old Han men. Either way, you have a bunch of old men pushing back at social changes. How long will the old dudes hang on? Darn you modern medicine!!!

    • There's always objection to change, regardless of age. Right now we have idealogues screaming about abortion rights when nobody in congress has put forward legislation to make it law. Both parties have ignored it, instead leaving it as a third rail issue and showing how gutless they are. That way they can blame SCOTUS as both sides have done on many issues in the past. They won't be tagged either for or against it for fear that they'll lose their cushy high-paying, benefit-laiden jobs. almost 50 years on an

  • Why not create a CCP controlled Twitch variant where every streamer is pumping out State Propaganda?
  • Under no circumstances should Twitch be introducing minors to soft porn via the legion of cam-hoes which are currently exploiting them.

    Sex-workers do not belong on a gaming platform frequented by children.

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