Month: August 2021

Enlarge / Students practicing computer games in an eSports class at the Lanxiang technical school in Jinan, in China's eastern Shandong province, on January 29, 2018. (credit: Getty Images | AFP | Greg Baker)

China reportedly issued new rules today forbidding minors from playing video games more than three hours a week, while banning youth gaming entirely from Monday to Thursday. While some news reports say the ban applies to all video games, enforcement measures issued by the National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) primarily target online games and online services related to gaming.

"Gaming companies will be barred from providing services to minors in any form outside the stipulated hours and must ensure they have put real-name verification systems in place, said the regulator, which oversees the country's video games market," a Reuters article said. "Previously, China had limited the length of time under-18s could play video games to 1.5 hours on any day and three hours on holidays under 2019 rules."

People under 18 will reportedly be allowed to play video games only from 8pm to 9pm on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays—limiting minors to three hours most weeks and not even letting them choose which three hours. Young people are reportedly prohibited from gaming at any time from Monday to Thursday each week under the new rules, which apply to all devices, including phones.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | naruecha jenthaisong)

A judge in Illinois has stripped visitation rights from an 11-year-old boy’s mother because she has not been vaccinated against COVID-19.

Earlier this month, at a child support hearing held over Zoom, Cook County Circuit Court Judge James Shapiro asked if Rebecca Firlit, the boy’s mother, had received the vaccine. She replied that she had not.

The judge said that until Firlit receives the vaccine, she cannot see her son in person, according to a report in the Chicago Sun-Times. Since the hearing, her interactions with him have been limited to phone calls and care packages. It’s unclear what prompted Shapiro to ask the question, and the Cook County clerk’s website was down for maintenance at the time of publication.

Enlarge / The latest Windows focuses heavily on improved task management, prettier UI, and a much more ambitious Microsoft Store. (credit: Microsoft)

There are still a lot of question marks about running Windows 11 on unsupported hardware. We know that Microsoft won't go to extraordinary lengths to keep you from running it, we know that the new OS won't be offered to older PCs automatically using Windows Update, and we know that although Microsoft's preferred security settings can degrade performance on older hardware, those settings still won't be the defaults for new installs. But now, Microsoft has added another question to that list: Will unsupported PCs be able to get updates?

The company hasn't out and out refused to offer updates for PCs that don't meet the official requirements, but Microsoft told the Verge that old PCs running Windows 11 wouldn't be "entitled" to Windows Updates, including security and driver updates. Assuming Windows 11 receives major updates once every six months or so, as Windows 10 does, those releases may also need to be installed manually on unsupported computers.

However updating unsupported PCs works in Windows 11, it's clear that Microsoft doesn't want to encourage the use of the operating system on PCs that don't meet the minimum performance and security requirements. The news that unsupported Windows 11 installs would be allowed at all was told to reporters on background, and not announced in last week's official post on the Windows blog. The company has told us that running Windows 11 on unsupported PCs was "not recommended" and that these installs are best used for temporary test machines and not hardware you rely on day to day. The company has continually reminded users that Windows 10 will be receiving a 21H2 update in the fall and that it will get security updates through October 14, 2025. It all adds up to a giant implied "just because you can doesn't mean you should."