Hey gamers: "time to exercise"
Tom Palmer: The Chinese government is set to force Chinese internet game companies to limit access by teenagers and to display admonitions that it is time to “do suitable physical exercise.” Yeah, that’ll work. On the other hand, the bureaucrats did show a little deeper understanding of (teenage) incentives when they required changes to the rewards system, as Associated Press points out:
“If they continue, the software slashes by half any points earned in the game. All points are wiped out if players stay on more than five hours.”And to think, I thought Kelly Lamrock was statist for forcing Ronald MacDonald out of the New Brunswick school system. He's got nothing on the communist. lol
5 Comments:
You don't know the chinese very well, in fact it WILL work, just like all of their 'statist' policies work (like throwing peasants off their land and beating them to death in T square to shut them up).
Just remember, it's a 'statist policy' to PUT McDonalds in the school system in the first place, so one good turn deserves another.
Fact is, SOME statist policies are good, others bad, depending on the policies. Given that canadian kids are hitting obesity epidemic proportions, personally I think this is a good idea. What's wrong with exercise? The state regulates everything they do for ten hours a day, and I hardly think there is much call just to let kids 'do whatever the hell they want' (look how that is working out in Fredericton).
Frankly, it's not the state's fault, nor the corporations, that young children are obese. Nobodu's forcing the Big Mac down their throat.
What ever happened to personal responsibility?
its good to see someone emphasizing exercise amongst our youth.
Lots of people are emphasizing exercise for youth. In fact it was the former Dean(?) of UNB Kinesiology, Marc Tremblay who went on to champion fitness for kids and now works for the Feds, studying health issues. (He also championed bicycle helmets for all)
Its not new, and there are plenty of kids out playing sports. The camps at UNB are full, F'ton soccer has almost doubled in size, as has most of the minor league sports programs... I would say that those kids and families that promote health are continuing to do so, and those that don't... well, don't. So are more kids obese or are the ones prone to obesity just bigger?
After 30 years of government sponsored programs - think ParticipAction - ( I am now the 40 year old Canadian whom the 80 year old Swede is fitter than...) are we better off or worse... or is it statistically even?
If your school only has McDonalds for lunch, or if healthy food is very expensive and you don't have money, then it IS the governments fault. If your society allows highly addictive fast food for cheap then it IS the 'governments fault'.
Yet there are people making those decisions, so that's exactly the question...where is the personal responsibility? That McDonalds is in a school in the first place should be a firing offense for administrators. As it turns out, working with local groups and providing healthier food is just as cheap as fast food, but its a political decision.
For ten hours a day kids pretty much sit like a lump in a chair. Quite obviously if fast food is all over the place and junk food is everywhere 'we' the grown up smarter people ought to realize that you either change the food, or else get the kids more active.
If you want the kids to have 'personal responsibility', then you first have to give them power and NOT make them sit in a chair most of the day.
It's no surprise that obesity is becoming like smoking and becoming class based. When a much higher percentage of poor kids are obese, then obviously personal responsibility has nothing to do with it.
It's actually been twenty to thirty years of government INaction that leads to obesity, as has been shown all over the world. Those swedes and nordic countries have high levels of government activity in virtually every sphere of life.
But there is a big difference, in those countries people LIKE their governments, they actually represent their populations, unlike here.
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