From Time Control to Offline Life Enrichment: Yao Ming Upgrades Youth Screen-Free Proposal

Former basketball star Yao Ming, a National People's Congress deputy, is reiterating his call for a 24-hour screen-free regime for youth and emphasizing the need to enrich kids' offline lives with meaningful activities.

At last year's Two Sessions, Yao promoted the idea of screen-free time and encouraged youngsters to play sports and socialize outdoors for healthy minds and bodies.

Yao now believes strict screen time limits will not work long-term, especially without engaging activities for children when they're not on their devices. Although young people may temporarily set aside their screens, the absence of meaningful offline activities often prevents these changes from becoming lasting habits.

Yao said it is important to make teenagers' time away from screens more interesting by giving them more access to public places and activities outside of school. Without such resources, he warns, screen dependency will only deepen.

As a result, his new proposal shifts the focus from simply controlling screen time to prioritizing spatial management and offline engagement.

Specifically, Yao is calling for more public spaces, both on and off campus, in urban and rural areas, to be created and made accessible to young people. With effective operation and management, these spaces could become vibrant, well-used hubs for youth activity.

He also stressed family-school collaboration, noting that exercise, reading, manual labor, and face-to-face communication can combat screen addiction.