The Wall Street Journal has reported that China imposed a new rule for the country’s minors: No videogames during the school week and one hour a day on Fridays, weekends and public holidays. China announced strict new measures today to reduce what authorities describe as youth videogame addiction. The new regulation, announced by the National Press and Publication Administration, allows minors to play videogames between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Fridays and weekends as well as public holidays. It...

I saw a similar article earlier last month where Tencent, one of the larger Chinese video game companies, made a pledge that they would reduce play time for minors to an hour during weekdays and no more than two hours during vacations and holidays. They did this after Chinese state media made a comment about video games being “spiritual opium”. The company also implemented measures such as facial recognition systems for certain games to prevent kids from using their parents’ IDs to buy...

I'm always on the lookout for accessible resources that are useful for young people and their families/caregivers and professionals who work with families. Below are some links to a great blog series from the creators of Bark, an app for families and schools that can monitor and alert adults about risky or concerning activity on a young person's smartphone. Whilst the Bark app appears to currently only be available in the U.S, their team runs an interesting blog series with videos and linked...

The Canadian Centre for Child Protection has two excellent resources for parents, caregivers and professionals who would like more information about keeping children and youth safe online. Protectkidsonline.ca has a range of information covering issues such as cyberbullying , exploitation , healthy relationships and online boundaries. This site also separates information by age brackets so information is tailored for children and young people aged 5-7, 8-10, 11-12 and 13-15 years.