Those who live in liberal democracies might gasp at China’s new laws limiting the time children can play videogames and banning private tutoring. These laws are what we call paternalistic: they limit personal freedoms with the justification that they promote the good of the individual. But before we dismiss such laws as the product of authoritarianism, we need to recognize that even liberal democracies allow for paternalistic laws. We make children go to school, ban them from drinking alcohol, and force adults to wear seatbelts. The problem  then isn’t paternalism itself, it’s whether paternalistic laws actually benefit people or not, argues Sarah Conly.

China has introduced two new laws affecting young people that have gotten a lot of attention around the world. They are limiting video game time to three hours a week, and they are eliminating for-profit tutoring. The first of these would no doubt elicit cries of agony from kids in the western world, and while that is less of an option for young people in China, we can assume many silent screams. The second rule may not garner the same emotional response from young people, but nonetheless will stop them (and their parents) from doing what many of their parents have hitherto paid a lot of money - $120 billion each year  -for them to do. These regulations are without a doubt paternalistic. The question remains whether they are good rules or bad. The answer, I think, is no and yes.