The new rules mean young people in China can now only play online for three hours a week

On a recent Sunday evening in Beijing, a few minutes before 8 p.m., Huang Chong opened a Harry Potter video game on her smartphone and tried to play it.

She couldn’t – by government decree.

A pop-up appeared on her screen: “Dear players… Minors can only play online games on Fridays from 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., weekends and national holidays and holidays. Please schedule some time to play and rest.”

New rules in China mean that people under 18 can only play online games for three hours a week, at certain times.

Even for a communist state that regulates the lives of its citizens to a much greater extent than the West, this is a new extension of control. This control is now being applied to various parts of society and culture as part of a new repression.

Huang Chong, who is 15, said she didn’t mind the video game policy much, but said it was “like banning smoking, drinking and playing mahjong for adults.”

“My friends are sending me messages complaining about the ban, that they only have an hour to play on Fridays and weekends and they can’t meet up with friends who play electronic games,” she told Sky News.

Policies have been introduced to curb video game addiction.

Huang Chong said she has no problem with video games. However, her father Huang Wen Shang disagreed and was grateful for the state’s intervention.

“I tried to convince her to give up the phone, but once she’s lost in it, she feels happy,” he told Sky News. “She won’t realize she’s been playing for so long that it could impact her vision, health and learning.

“As parents, we need help from outside – from teachers, from government policy.”

Video games are just part of a new campaign by the Chinese Communist Party to reassert society in its values.

The perceived hedonism of the last 20 years – you could also call it letting people do what they want – is being replaced by an emphasis on proper socialist values.

The government has blasted movie stars for promoting what it calls “false, ugly and bad values,” and actors have been mysteriously removed from China’s internet without explanation.

The government has also introduced measures to curb “chaotic” fan culture online. Karaoke songs that “threaten national unity” or promote “obscenity” have been blacklisted.

Schools are now banned from using foreign textbooks, and young students are required to read about “Xi Jinping Thought” – the Chinese leader’s vague official ideology as enshrined in the constitution of the People’s Republic of China.

The country’s television regulator told Chinese media to “firmly oppose the display of wealth and pleasure” and to consider political and moral issues when selecting actors.

It also banned so-called effeminate men from appearing on screen, using the derogatory term “niang pao,” roughly translated as “manly boys,” in its official statement.

Activist Lu Ruihai’s group provides information and support to parents whose children have come out.

“Many people use the word ‘sissy boys’ – an aggressive and offensive word – to describe people who are not heterosexual or do not have typical and traditional sexual relationships,” he told Sky News.

“The entire LGBTQ community is numb. “I think this policy negatively impacts young LGBTQ people who haven’t yet come out.”

Both critics and supporters of the new regulations interpreted them as far-reaching, not just ad hoc policy adjustments.

In an article that was widely published in official state media, prominent blogger Li Guangman said it was a “profound” political change.

“It is also a return to the original intentions of the Chinese Communist Party… a return to the essence of socialism,” he wrote.

Public opinion “will no longer be a place of worship for Western culture,” he wrote.

“Therefore we must take control of all the cultural chaos and build a culture that is alive, healthy, masculine, strong and people-oriented.”

Back home, Huang Chong spent an hour of government-sanctioned fun.

However, there are ways to circumvent the new rules.

“Many students log into games on adults’ phones,” she told Sky News.

“We are smarter. We climb through the firewall. Crossing the dam is risky because it is illegal. Not many people can do that.”

Teenagers – and many other normal Chinese citizens – may now find themselves in such minor skirmishes with the state.