China announced drastic measures that will permit minors’ gaming time to just 3 hours per week. Despite the country being the biggest gaming market in the world, this move has been implemented to control gaming addictions.
A bid to curb gaming addiction in the gaming obsessed nation
On Monday, China announced that minors will be allowed to do online gaming for only 3 hours a week during term time. This move by the Chinese government is to broaden their track down of tech giants as the country is one of the world’s biggest gaming markets.
According to the guideline and as per new agency Xinhua reports, gamers under the age of 18 will only be allowed to play online games between 8:00 and 9:00 in the evening only on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
Moreover, gamers will be required to enter their Identification Cards (ID) when they register to play online games. This is to ensure that the minors do not lie about their age or even fake their identity.
Therefore, on school holidays, children will be permitted to play a little longer than usual with the set time at 60 minutes per day.
The National Press and Publication say in a statement that gaming addiction has impacted the academics and normal “healthy” life of children which has made many parents miserable.
Highest earners in the market to be tracked
Despite the Chinese Communist Party’s drive to draw millions of consumers and regulate through its big technology and other powerful sectors, the gaming industry seems to be the next target for regulators.
Furthermore, a long list of rules has been introduced recently to control the excessive and obsessive nature of the gaming culture amongst Chinese youth, from bad and worsening eyesight to online addiction.
Lastly, in July, Chinese tech giant Tencent introduced a “midnight patrol” function to weed out children pretending to be adults to dodge government curfews on minor online gaming using facial recognition.
