China Rolling Out Strict Online Gaming Restrictions For Kids To Curb Gaming Addiction

In an effort to combat the issue of gaming addiction, China’s state censor has unveiled a new set of anti-addiction guidelines aimed at online games.

As reported by the South China Morning Post, these new rules are targeted mainly at minors, and will limit the amount of time they can play online games as well as the amount of money they can spend on microtransactions. These restrictions will presumably apply both to mobile games as well as console and PC.

A brief outline of some of these new rules can be found below:

• Citizens under the age of 18 will only be allowed to play online games for 1 and a half hours per day, 3 hours on holidays.
• Citizens under the age of 18 can only play online games between 8am to 10pm.
• Citizens under the age of 18 can only spend a maximum amount of 400 yuan on microtransactions per month (Roughly $50-$60 USD).
• These rules come alongside a stricter real-name registration system and age-rating system.
  • Citizens who do not meet the age-rating of the game will be barred from access
  • Age-Rating system will be backed by Tencent’s robust registration system that pulls from police databases, which will stop citizens from giving fake information to get around the block.
• Publishers will have to work with parents, schools, and other groups to enforce these rules.

Despite these strict new laws, analysts predict that this will not have much of an impact on gaming revenue in China. This is apparently because children under the age of 18 do not account for that much of the gaming populace there.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.