I’m not really adding to the discussion here, so I’ll delete my comment if necessary. But, societal implications aside, this reminds me of the “drink verification can” greentext.
I’m not really adding to the discussion here, so I’ll delete my comment if necessary. But, societal implications aside, this reminds me of the “drink verification can” greentext.
I don’t even understand the real goal here. I can’t imagine a company or government being so interested in the sleep schedules of children. Is the hope to boil the frog on facial recognition...
I don’t even understand the real goal here. I can’t imagine a company or government being so interested in the sleep schedules of children. Is the hope to boil the frog on facial recognition authorization with all internet access?
Things get weird when authoritarian governments are involved - I'm not saying there isn't a deeper motive, but I'm entertaining the prospect that some true believer at the right level of power...
Things get weird when authoritarian governments are involved - I'm not saying there isn't a deeper motive, but I'm entertaining the prospect that some true believer at the right level of power really does see themselves as the wise and benevolent parent to 300m teenagers.
If "fixing the moral decay of our youth" or some equivalent bullshit is the pet project of a person who holds the keys to something Tencent wants, I could believe that this whole thing is just terrifyingly invasive political posturing.
I don't think assuming someone up there genuinely is operating on an ideological basis is warranted, albeit that could definitely be the case. I think it's more likely someone decided that...
I don't think assuming someone up there genuinely is operating on an ideological basis is warranted, albeit that could definitely be the case. I think it's more likely someone decided that insomnia is bad enough in China to warrant something be done and they figured a ban on playing video games late at night was a decent band-aid.
There's a lot of my own long-held antiauthoritarianism tied up in that last post, but I think we're saying a relatively similar thing. My take is that the act of imposing one's personal idea about...
There's a lot of my own long-held antiauthoritarianism tied up in that last post, but I think we're saying a relatively similar thing. My take is that the act of imposing one's personal idea about sleep patterns on an entire nation is inherently ideological. You're* saying you know better than the teenagers or their parents, and by implication that they're not doing a good enough job themselves, so you're going to fix the problem for them.
That's no small thing, even if the starting point was an honest observation about people not getting enough sleep.
*[Edit] Just read this back, and in case it wasn't clear that's the general "you" aimed at the anonymous person behind the policy, not anything I'm accusing you personally of!
So I'm not leaping to defend the Chinese gov't, I'm sure they're doing all sorts of objectionable stuff in regards to facial recognition in other ways. However, my wife does some part time work...
So I'm not leaping to defend the Chinese gov't, I'm sure they're doing all sorts of objectionable stuff in regards to facial recognition in other ways. However, my wife does some part time work doing English tutoring for Chinese students and the Chinese government has several times in the last couple of years increased regulations on how late and how frequently Chinese students can take extracurricular classes like that. If you want a source other than "my wife" you can see here. Honestly it really does seem like the Chinese gov't has decided there is a problem with students not getting enough rest and being overloaded and over worked and has decided to step in. Now, obviously I don't think this is the way to go about it, but there it is.
Seems likely, alongside it being a lot harder to do something like fake someone else's face, thus making it more convenient for the government to be able to use your face as verification if it...
Seems likely, alongside it being a lot harder to do something like fake someone else's face, thus making it more convenient for the government to be able to use your face as verification if it wants to enforce whatever. Also from the article:
Facial recognition technology is commonly used in China to facilitate daily activities as well as regulate public behavior. Hotels use it when checking in guests, while banks use it to verify payments. The state uses it to track down criminal suspects. One city has even deployed the technology to shame it's residents from the habit of wearing pajamas in public.
I may be well off here but on top off all the data gathering and normalizing of invasive practices, to do business in authoritarian states you have to stay ahead of government or risk being took...
I may be well off here but on top off all the data gathering and normalizing of invasive practices, to do business in authoritarian states you have to stay ahead of government or risk being took over. It's not the west where big business waits until laws are enacted and then waits until someone gets busted, then follows the appeal process until the high court when they finally decide to follow the law. You have to interpret the Party's speeches and announcements and implement what you think they want before someone decides to are being "difficult" and takes you down a peg or two.
For almost every video game restriction, children and teenagers will find a way around it.
But the room to maneuver is shrinking in China [...]. In 2019, the country imposed a cybercurfew barring those under 18 from playing games between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m.
Recognizing that [...] teenagers might try to use their parents’ devices or identities to circumvent the restrictions, the Chinese internet conglomerate Tencent said this week that it would close the loophole by deploying facial recognition technology in it's video games.
Some were in favor of the controls, saying they would combat adolescent internet addiction, but they also questioned how the data would be relayed to the authorities. Others said Tencent was assuming an overly paternalistic role.
“This type of thing ought to be done by the parents,” a user named Qian Mo Chanter wrote on Zhihu, a Quora-like platform. “Control the kid and save the game.”
Tencent said it began testing facial recognition technology in April to verify the ages of avid nighttime players and has since used it in 60 of its games. In June, it prompted an average of 5.8 million users a day to show their faces while logging in, blocking more than 90 percent of those who rejected or failed facial verification from access to their accounts.
I agree with you, but then what is there to be done? Journalists need to be paid, advertising leads to problematic incentives (in multiple ways), and so far nobody has implemented a workable...
I agree with you, but then what is there to be done? Journalists need to be paid, advertising leads to problematic incentives (in multiple ways), and so far nobody has implemented a workable micropayment model.
They are annoying, and there's an upper limit on how many publications any given person will reasonably subscribe to (again, micropayments), but it would be detrimental to avoid them on Tildes for that reason alone. I'd happily pay £15 or so per month to a central system and have it portioned out to different publications based on the articles I actually read, but that seems like a pipe dream right now.
I’m not really adding to the discussion here, so I’ll delete my comment if necessary. But, societal implications aside, this reminds me of the “drink verification can” greentext.
Hahahahaha, that is such a surreal greentext, thanks for sharing!
It does have a strong gaming-curfew feel to it.
I don’t even understand the real goal here. I can’t imagine a company or government being so interested in the sleep schedules of children. Is the hope to boil the frog on facial recognition authorization with all internet access?
Things get weird when authoritarian governments are involved - I'm not saying there isn't a deeper motive, but I'm entertaining the prospect that some true believer at the right level of power really does see themselves as the wise and benevolent parent to 300m teenagers.
If "fixing the moral decay of our youth" or some equivalent bullshit is the pet project of a person who holds the keys to something Tencent wants, I could believe that this whole thing is just terrifyingly invasive political posturing.
I don't think assuming someone up there genuinely is operating on an ideological basis is warranted, albeit that could definitely be the case. I think it's more likely someone decided that insomnia is bad enough in China to warrant something be done and they figured a ban on playing video games late at night was a decent band-aid.
There's a lot of my own long-held antiauthoritarianism tied up in that last post, but I think we're saying a relatively similar thing. My take is that the act of imposing one's personal idea about sleep patterns on an entire nation is inherently ideological. You're* saying you know better than the teenagers or their parents, and by implication that they're not doing a good enough job themselves, so you're going to fix the problem for them.
That's no small thing, even if the starting point was an honest observation about people not getting enough sleep.
*[Edit] Just read this back, and in case it wasn't clear that's the general "you" aimed at the anonymous person behind the policy, not anything I'm accusing you personally of!
So I'm not leaping to defend the Chinese gov't, I'm sure they're doing all sorts of objectionable stuff in regards to facial recognition in other ways. However, my wife does some part time work doing English tutoring for Chinese students and the Chinese government has several times in the last couple of years increased regulations on how late and how frequently Chinese students can take extracurricular classes like that. If you want a source other than "my wife" you can see here. Honestly it really does seem like the Chinese gov't has decided there is a problem with students not getting enough rest and being overloaded and over worked and has decided to step in. Now, obviously I don't think this is the way to go about it, but there it is.
Seems likely, alongside it being a lot harder to do something like fake someone else's face, thus making it more convenient for the government to be able to use your face as verification if it wants to enforce whatever. Also from the article:
If my city did that I’d probably go out of my way to get onto the pajama shaming jumbotron wearing the most ridiculous outfit possible.
We’ll look forward to seeing you after your stay in the re-education camp.
And then the government marks you as a problem person so no one wants to be around you in fear that their social credit scores will drop.
I may be well off here but on top off all the data gathering and normalizing of invasive practices, to do business in authoritarian states you have to stay ahead of government or risk being took over. It's not the west where big business waits until laws are enacted and then waits until someone gets busted, then follows the appeal process until the high court when they finally decide to follow the law. You have to interpret the Party's speeches and announcements and implement what you think they want before someone decides to are being "difficult" and takes you down a peg or two.
I don't want to sound like an ass but it's really annoying with these pay wall posts...
I agree with you, but then what is there to be done? Journalists need to be paid, advertising leads to problematic incentives (in multiple ways), and so far nobody has implemented a workable micropayment model.
They are annoying, and there's an upper limit on how many publications any given person will reasonably subscribe to (again, micropayments), but it would be detrimental to avoid them on Tildes for that reason alone. I'd happily pay £15 or so per month to a central system and have it portioned out to different publications based on the articles I actually read, but that seems like a pipe dream right now.