China continues its war against online video games and has just passed a law that allows minors to play only three hours a week, no more than one hour a day and only on weekends. According to official statements, this law would serve to “effectively prevent the addiction of minors to online games”, a very widespread problem in China and that the state has been trying to fight for many years now.
China and video games: you can only play three hours a week
Despite the numerous initiatives aimed at making this law effective, it must be said that controlling the hours spent by minors on video games is not as simple as it seems. To make it easier to implement the new legislation, China intervened directly on national software houses, who will have to actively work to limit the access of minors to their servers. This control should be done through the use of a real name and facial recognition.
Simultaneously with these measures, the press and administrations were asked to strengthen “the supervision and inspection of the implementation of relevant measures to prevent minors from engaging in online games and to deal with video game companies that have not strictly implemented them in compliance with laws and regulations “. Words that seem to refer to more than a limit a real ban.
These rules, according to the official version, should favor a healthy physical and mental growth of minors, but it is difficult not to read a under text of prohibition more or less evident. On the other hand, China is not new to this kind of operation.
Until now, Chinese users under the age of 18 were allowed to play online on weekdays for up to 90 minutes, with no connection after 10pm and before 8am.. Drastic and apparently quite counterproductive measures, given the great influence of several Chinese software houses in the mobile video game market.