Only 3 hours a week! China limits Children’s Video Game Playing 不准沈迷！中國未成年一週只能打三小時電玩

China announced a new policy that forbids underage youths from playing video games for more than three hours a week. Those under age 18 are restricted to playing one hour of video games in the evening on Fridays, weekends, and public holidays. The new rules are aimed to pull the plug on a growing addiction to what it once described as “spiritual opium.”

While some users expressed support for the measures, it is a heavy blow to the gaming industry, which expected to generate an estimated $45.6 billion of revenue in 2021 from the Chinese market, the world’s most lucrative.

友善讓你懂 │ 解說：

　
中國近期宣布了一項新政策，禁止未成年者每週打電玩時間超過三個小時。新規定指出，未滿 18 歲的未成年只能在周五、週末和國定假期的晚上8點到9點間，玩電子遊戲一小時。這個新規定是為了要解決消除人們對新世紀的「精神鴉片」－電玩日益增長的依賴。

雖然不少民眾對這項政策表示支持，但這對遊戲行業來說，是一個沉重的打擊。中國的遊戲市場龐大，預計 2021 年可達到 456 億美元的收入，也是全球最賺錢的市場。這樣的禁令對遊戲、科技，甚至是電競產業，都會造成嚴重衝擊。

輕鬆帶著走 │ 學習：

　
pull the plug字面意思是「拔插頭」，延伸意思就是「制止，阻止（某事繼續）」，就像電器插頭被拔掉後，就無法持續運轉一樣。例句：

• The company pulled the plug on the deal. 該公司取消了這筆交易
• The TV network will probably pull the plug on the whole series. 電視台可能會取消預定整齣影集。

本篇其他相關單字，介紹如下：

1. forbid (v.) 禁止
2. opium (n.) 鴉片
3. lucrative (adj.) 有利可圖的