Taiwan: ILLEGAL to let children under two use electronic gadgets, under-18 must limit use

Bron 1: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2929530/Does-toddler-play-iPad-Taiwan-makes-ILLEGAL-parents-let-children-two-use-electronic-gadgets-18s-limit-use-reasonable-lengths.html .
28 jan. 2015

Does YOUR toddler play on an iPad? Taiwan makes it ILLEGAL for parents to let children under two use electronic gadgets... and under-18s must limit use to 'reasonable' lengths

... Children under two banned from using electronic devices in Taiwan
... Parents who allow children to use iPads and smartphones face fines
... Under-18s are only allowed devices for a 'reasonable length of time'

Taiwan has banned children under the age of two from using electronic devices such as iPads, televisions and smartphones.

Parents who allow their young children to play with their gadgets face fines of up to £1,000, in line with a law passed last week.

The new law also states that parents must ensure that under-18s only use electronic products for a 'reasonable' length of time.

Taiwanese lawmakers passed the new legislation last Friday, completely banning parents from allowing their under-twos to use any electronic devices, China's official news agency Xinhua reports.

Meanwhile Taiwanese under-18s are not allowed to 'constantly use electronic products for a period of time that is not reasonable', although the 'reasonable length of time' has not been defined.

The new law means that iPads, smartphones and televisions are now listed alongside cigarettes and alcohol as restricted.

The new law was originally proposed by Taiwanese MP Lu Shiow-yen, who said his intention was to protect young people by stopping them using electronic devices for more than 30 minutes at a time, The Telegraph reports.

Research published in December last year found that 7.1 per cent of the population in Asia is addicted to the internet.

In neighbouring China, online addiction among young people has become a serious problem, with an estimated 24million children considered 'web junkies'.

As well as introducing laws requiring games companies 'to develop techniques that would limit the gaming time of minors', more than 250 military style boot camps have been set up across China to tackle under-18 internet addiction.

Since the release of the first iPad in 2010, an ever increasing number of parents use the Apple device to 'babysit' their children.

A recent poll found that half of British parents routinely allow infants to play with their smartphone or tablet, and one in seven let them spend more than four hours a day on hand-held devices.

Even Prince William recently admitted to letting Prince George play games on his iPad, saying that he believes it is 'a good way to each him the inner workings of electronics'.

Research published in the British Medical Journal found that a child born today will have spent a full year staring at screens (tablets, computers, TVs) by the time they reach seven.


Bron 2: www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/taiwan/11373521/Taiwan-orders-parents-to-limit-childrens-time-with-electronic-games.html .
28 jan. 2015

Taiwan orders parents to limit children's time with electronic games

Parents in Taiwan face hefty fines if they let their offspring spend too long gaping at televisions or playing video games

By Tom Phillips, Shanghai4:06AM GMT 28 Jan 2015
Parents in Taiwan are now legally obliged to stop their children spending too much time using ''electronic products'' such as video games and televisions.

Under rules passed last Friday by Taiwanese politicians, children under the age of two should be completely banned from using electronic devices, Xinhua, China's official news agency reported.

Meanwhile under-18s should not be allowed to ''constantly use electronic products for a period of time that is not reasonable''. It means electronic products are now listed alongside cigarettes and alcohol as potentially dangerous vices.

The new regulation is the brainchild of Lu Shiow-yen, a Taiwanese member of parliament who said his intention was to protect young people by stopping them using electronic devices for more than 30 minutes at a time.

Parents who break the rules can be hit with fines of up to about £1,000 although it remains unclear how authorities will determine what amount of time is unreasonable.

Taiwan is not the first Asian country to take action against the apparent perils of addiction to the internet and online games.

China, which now has 648 million internet users, at least 24 million young ''web junkies'' and a rocketing number of internet addiction camps, has spent years trying to devise measures to help goggle-eyed children.

In 2010, Beijing introduced rules requiring games companies ''to develop techniques that would limit the gaming time of minors in order to prevent addiction'', according to Xinhua.

Those steps have included penalising those playing online role-playing games by reducing their characters' abilities if they play for more than a certain period of time.

In December 2013, Shanghai's government introduced laws stating that, ''parents or other custodians should prevent and stop minors smoking, drinking alcohol, roaming the streets, or being overindulgent with online and electronic games''.

In the neighbouring province of Zhejiang, parents are told to follow guidelines by which they must ''instruct and educate minors to correctly choose and use internet material and not to be overindulgent'' with their use of such systems.



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