China’s new regulation to reduce children’s online gaming time significantly

Highlights

• China would be executing an online gaming restriction for the country’s young population under 18 years of age.
• No online gaming on weekdays, children to now access online games for only an hour on weekends and public holidays.
• This limited access to online games has affected the country’s tech stocks.

Children and young people aged less than 18 years in China would now be granted only three hours a week to engage in online video games, as per the new directives issued by the country's National Press and Publication Administration.

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New online playing timings

According to the new rules, kids and teenagers would be allowed to play video games between 8 pm to 9 pm, i.e., for one hour a day on Fridays, weekends as well as legal holidays, starting from September 2021.

It is noted that children would not be allowed to play online games from Monday to Thursday.

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Reason behind the restriction

The move was announced to protect the physical and mental health of the children and limit the excessive use of online gaming among minors, as most of the Chinese parents opined that excessive gaming has caused a series of social problems among their kids.

Moreover, Beijing fears online gaming does not mirror Chinese values and is touted as anti-social for all age groups.

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Earlier, Chinese agencies had restricted online gaming to 1.5 hours a day and three hours on public holidays.

China's regulators mentioned that it would raise both the periodicity, as well as strictness of its monitoring to ensure proper time limits are being followed.

Blow to Chinese gaming giants

This move by the Chinese authorities gave a severe jolt to the country’s gaming jumbos like NetEase and Tencent. However, Tencent stated that only a small portion of its gaming revenue is derived from young users.

Online game service providers have been mandated to ask users to register their real names. Also, users would be required to log in to play.

Moreover, the gaming companies need to assure that minors are not logging in other than the permissible time period.

Moreover, it has alarmed the investors and hit the value of the nation’s tech stocks.

Must Read: China tightens its grip on tech-based firms, threatens compliance deadlines

Authority targets e-commerce and online education companies

Recently, Chinese authorities had attacked online tutoring companies and e-commerce portals from making profits. After years of continuous growth in the country’s tech sector, the authorities had issued new guidelines to stem the anti-competitive behaviour and regulate their business operations.

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Bottom Line

Though the move by the Chinese agency may be beneficial for the mental and physical health of the nation's kids, stringent regulations may affect the nation’s technology sector in the long run.