These days, it is rarer than usual to see the engagements of an average Chinese youth.
This is coming after the Chinese Government placed restrictions and limits on the gaming time for minors to three hours per week and must be from 8:00 p.m to 9:00 p.m. on Fridays and weekends.
This decree was made in a bid to stop gaming addiction facing the country and was effective since September 1, 2021 according to the statement of the Chinese government said through its National Press and Publication Administration.
According to the Chinese authority and its regulators, gamers under the age of 18 are barred from playing on weekdays and limited their play to just three hours most weekends, as a response to show concern, noting that game addiction affects the physical and mental health of children.
The new rules will require all gaming platforms to be linked to a state-operated anti-addiction system and require that all users be verified with a real-life identity.
The new rules will require all gaming platforms to be linked to a state-operated anti-addiction system and require that all users be verified with a real-life identity.
It would increase the frequency and intensity of inspections of online gaming companies to ensure time limits were put in place.
The regulators also said they will step up compliance checks to ensure companies enforce the new rules.
Also, the rules apply to industries providing online game services to minors, limiting their ability to serve those users outside designated hours.
The companies also are not allowed to provide services to users who haven’t logged in with real-name registration, preventing them from simply remaining ignorant to their users’ backgrounds.
It would increase the frequency and intensity of inspections of online gaming companies to ensure time limits were put in place.
As stated by the regulator, there are steps up measures to punish gaming firms that violate the rules and have increased penalties given after inspections, expressing that more than 10,000 gaming titles were reviewed last year.
It noted minors could still use their parents’ accounts to bypass the restrictions, to tackle this, parents and schools also need to step up supervision.
This new proclamation marked a significant boom of restrictions on the country’s massive gaming industry and the disapproval of youth gaming, as the country’s gaming giants like Tencent and NetEase, have recently dealt with minor gaming with their regulations.
China’s biggest gaming company, Tencent Holdings, limited gaming time for minors and ban children under age 12 from making in-game purchases following a critique from the Chinese government.
This was in an article published by the Economic Information Daily, a newspaper affiliated with China’s official Xinhua News Agency, called games “spiritual opium” and this led to a more than 10 per cent plunge in Tencent’s stocks.
Although the article was later removed, the damage was done, as the company lost $60 billion in market value.
The newspaper article named Tencent’s wildly popular Honour of Kings game as one that minors were addicted to, and cited a student as saying that some played the game for eight hours a day. The online article was removed hours later.
Spiritual opium has grown into an industry worth hundreds of billions, no industry should be allowed to develop in a manner that will “destroy a generation.
Society has come to recognise the harm caused by online gaming, and it is often referred to as opium for the mind or electronic drugs.
Parents quoted in the article spoke of children playing the game for seven hours a day, skipping breakfast to buy games, and their grades plummeting.
In response, Tencent said it will now limit gaming time for minors to one hour a day, and two hours a day during holidays.
Children under age 12 will also be prohibited from making purchases within the game, the company said.
Under Chinese law, users under age 18 can play online games for a maximum of one and a half hours a day, and three hours during holidays.
Tencent also called for the industry to control gaming time for minors and discuss the possibility of banning those younger than 12 from playing games.
The critique of the gaming industry sparked a sell-off of stocks in Chinese gaming companies including NetEase amid fears that the gaming industry could be the next to experience a clampdown.
Chinese authorities in recent months have targeted e-commerce and online education, implementing new regulations to curb anticompetitive behaviour after years of rapid growth in the technology sector.
In July, the Chinese government also banned companies that provide tutoring in core school subjects from turning a profit, wiping out billions in market value from online education companies such as TAL Education and Gaotu Techedu.