China restricts mobile gaming for kids to three hours per week from Sept: Report

In a bid to curb mobile gaming addiction, the Chinese government on Tuesday slashed children's mobile gaming time to three hours per week. As per the new rules, youth and minors in China will be permitted to play online video games for one hour a day on Fridays (8 pm-9 pm), weekends, and public holidays. The rules will be strictly implemented from September 1.

The new regulations, unveiled by The National Press and Public Administration, mandated teenagers below 18 years of age to refrain from playing online mobile video games during the school week i.e. from Monday to Thursday. Furthermore, the statement by the authorities also mandated players to register on online gaming sites using their real names and government-issued identifications. The current rule superseded the 2019 order announced order that allowed minors to spend 90 minutes per day and another three hours per weekend on mobile gaming.

With the new set of gaming rules, the government has aimed to “effectively protect the physical and mental health of minors,” China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency said Monday. Lastly, the Beijing government urged the mobile gaming companies to abide by the newly set rules as a first step to promote "anti-addiction" among Chinese teenagers and minors.

New rules render a huge blow to the Chinese gaming companies

As per reports, the new regulatory guidelines have affected some major gaming companies domestically and globally. Gaming giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. saw a dip in stock price on Monday just ahead of the announcement. As per the Associated Press report, the company closed at 0.6% at 465.80 Hong Kong dollars. Additionally, since February, Tencent also suffered a capitalisation loss that amounted to roughly $200 billion following the 2019 order, the decline equaled to more than the total value of Nike or Pfizer. Meanwhile, New York-based NetEase also saw a considerable dip of 9% at the Monday market open.

"Spiritual opium"

Meanwhile, Tencent Holdings announced that it will abide by the newly set rules and limit gaming for minors to an hour a day and two hours during holidays, the AP reported. Moreover, in order to meet the anti-addiction measures, it will ban children under the age of 12 from making in-game purchases. The company made its announcements after a state-run newspaper criticised the gaming industry and called mobile games "spiritual opium." As of August 30, Chinese regulators also issued a notice stating that it would strengthen supervision and increase the frequency of inspections of online game companies to ensure that they follow the said rules accurately.

With inputs from AP

Image: Shutterstock/AP/(representative)