[araneae]

I feel like this is very different in kind.

Are there any other countries that enforce a daily time limit on an activity, whether for children or adults?

It seems either an activity (like smoking) is typically banned entirely or allowed; having it be partially allowed like this is difficult to enforce and consequently invites weird and invasive measures like these.

[saithound]

Yes, there are. Examples that immediately come to mind:

- Anyone driving a large vehicle for more than 9 hours per day, 56 in a week, and 90 over a two-week period in the European Union.

- Adults using a tanning under a sunlamp for more than one cycle in a 24 hour period in many countries (others, such as Australia, did ban them entirely).

- Children spending more than 10 hours per day in child care centers in many US states, such as Washington.

- Alcohol purchases are limited to certain times of day in many European countries (compare "No games between 10pm and 8am" in China).

Many of these are very difficult to enforce, and enforcement benefits from intrusive technology (such as tachographs) and even more so from intrusive AI (e.g. many EU countries were set to implement platforms to monitor truck drivers using AI, until the European Commission's Artificial Intelligence Act forced a change of plans).

I also disagree with the previous examples being as different in kind as you seem to think: e.g. the "no home-schooling" requirements, combined with mandatory attendance, still limits children's gaming time to something less than 19 hours on weekdays. Which is different from "no more than 1.5 hours", but only quantitatively, not qualitatively. And it certainly matches "the government does not trust its citizens to raise their own children", which was my main point.

[noduerme]

All of your examples limit or prescribe hours of work. This implies that the remaining time is free. There is a fundamental difference between telling a minor what they have to do some hours of the day - e.g. go to school - and telling them how they must apportion the entire rest of their time when they've finished their work. "Free time" loses meaning if it's all surveilled and controlled. Truckers don't have to be watched when they're not driving. Adults, too, have all their time free when not working, to waste or use productively as they please. To say you're limited to the remaining 19 hours of the day just means you have 19 hours of free time. It's no longer free time if the government begins to restrict it for reasons that are outside its remit.

[toomanybeersies]

Australia also has limits on heavy vehicle driving hours, and cameras on the main highways to enforce them.

[noduerme]

You're allowed have sex. You're allowed to give someone money. But you're not give someone sex for money.

What China has done is take an arbitrary, ridiculous rule like that, and make it even more absurd. Imagine if they said that after 30 minutes, a massage is by definition sex. And if you do it more than 90 minutes a week, it's sex addiction.

It's just arbitrary ways of controlling the populace. I doubt if they care whether kids play games. It's just a way to start facial recognition for the social credit system early.

[arkey]

You're not taking purpose or context into consideration.

It is legal to smoke. It is legal to go into a restaurant. However, it is not legal to go into a restaurant and smoke.

That's neither arbitrary nor ridiculous, it actually makes a lot of sense.

I will agree with you that often if not always, rules come with a background shady agenda behind them, such as this one being about mass surveillance.

But it is critically important to understand the purpose of things before disregarding them.