6:48 PM on 03.06.2007
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Nex
Almost certainly in response to the deaths caused in recent years due to Chinese gamers spending far more time than is healthy playing video games in public internet cafes, the Beeb reports that China has banned the creation of any new ones, at least this year. Considering that China already has around 113,000 cafes and bars specifically designed to appeal to the average Chinese person's desire to escape, however momentarily, the oppressive, communist regime they exist within, the problem of Internet addiction won't exactly be extinguished, but Chinese authorities hope they can stem the rising tide of what they see as an epidemic before it kills more of their countrymen than Genghis Khan and man-eating panda bears combined.
It all seems very altruistic and right-minded, doesn't it? Sure it does! Right up until you realize that China has one of the world's worst records on censorship, especially of the Internet, and that removing people's ability to connect with the world, even in its currently censored form, is just one more way to oppress and subjugate an already put-upon proletariatian population. If it wasn't for all the deadly panda bears, I would so punch China in the nose for this.
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Simply put, all I'm saying is that we should look at such issues though a balance perspective. There are merits on both sides. People cry freedom all the time but then you've got people carrying guns. Freedom may be a right but it's also a responsibility. That's what I think anyway, otherwise why can't you just go around spray painting someone's house with graffiti and not be arrested for it?
Um, last time I checked China's government has done some bad things as well in its 50 some years of existence. To say China is all gum drops and faries is counter productive to honest critisism. No government is excepmt from this especially the US since its always critizied from even its own media. I'm saying all opinions should be allowed to be expressed. I'll see if I can post from China in one of their internet cafes to see what its really like. My uneducated guess right now is Blizzard owns their souls.
You're acting much more high and mighty. Get off your soap box., and shut the fuck up.
Freedom is a right, and yes, it does bring about responsibility for your own actions. Maybe China needs to look at the reason why so many of its citizens are so addicted to internet escapism, instead of limiting them more. Hey wait. Maybe its that they're oppressive as fuck? Nah, that can't be it.
China has taken the capitalist model, but instead of making all its citizens into happy people who will have money to consume and saying fuck those who can't, they're saying "Hey, fuck ALL our citizens. They can just be worker bees, and we'll sell to the rest of the world."
This is just the latest step towards that. No government is perfect, but China is a lot farther behind than a lot of other countries.
I'm joking!
*nervous laugh*
I would love to see how the China Daily spinned this one... People, before you say anything about China, I would advise you to put down your videogames for a couple of hours and READ. Start with "Mao, The Unknown Story" and move on from there.
This is a totalitarian regime. They do ban wikipedia. I do have to use a plug-in in Firefox to access some websites (gladder). I know the western countries aren't as "free" as they used to be, but we're talking about a country where you have to ask the government if you want to move to a different city.
I personally believe that this measure has nothing to do with Internet addiction and everything to do with controlling access to information.
Think about it for 2 seconds... 13 of 18 million Internet users under 18. That's 2.34 million people. Out of 1.3 billion.
2,340,000 out of
1,300,000,000.
That's 0.0018% of the population.
The government really doesn't care about the welfare of its people. It's unfortunate, but when you have over a billion people under your control, I guess you tend to see them as expendable.
And by the way, from what I've seen in the only cybercafé I've been to in Guangzhou, it seems that Counterstrike is the most played game. But my sample is too small to generalise.
Good thing I am in Hong Kong, because I would have never posted something like that from the Mainland. Just in case.
"13 percent of China's 18 million Internet users under 18"