China has what's easily the hardest stance towards video games in the world. The country not only has serious restrictions on what games can be published in the region, forcing extreme self-censorship by publishers, but it also puts severe limitations on how those younger than 18 can play online games at all. According to a new report, it's only going to get worse for underage Chinese video game fans. New rules will allow young gamers just three hours every week to play.
Monday morning, Chinese officials issued new rules restricting youth below the age of 18 to just three hours of online game time a week. Under China's new rules, young gamers will only be able to play between the hours of 8:00 and 9:00 pm on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and on holidays. In other words, it's not just that they're limited to three hours a week, it's that they have to play during a specific window, as well. If they miss the window, they don't receive an extra hour at another time.
The previous rules for youth in China were also highly restrictive, allowing players just one and a half hours each day or three hours on holidays to play games. There was no window during which games could be played, but rather a limit that had to be imposed by online games for accounts registered by players under the age of 18. The new rules are significantly more restrictive, nevermind that online game developers will have to quickly implement the restrictions in their games.
As for why China's government is implementing such extreme limitations on youth gaming time, the cited cause is the threat of gaming addiction among minors. A spokesperson was quoted as saying, "Teenagers are the future of our motherland," and that, "Protecting the physical and mental health of minors is related to the people's vital interests."
The impact on the gaming industry as a result of the new restrictions is complicated. On one hand, Tencent has reported that players under 16 account for just 2.6% of total player spend. In other words, younger gamers playing less won't monetarily hit publishers too hard. However, the news has also led to Chinese game companies' stock prices to fall dramatically, which obviously does hit publishers very hard.
It deserves to be clarified that these new restrictions are for online games only. There's no enforceable way to implement these restrictions on offline games, after all. There are also relatively simple ways to work around the restrictions, too, like using a parent's account. Still, for many young game players, including esports players from China, this could mean the end of their online gaming until they turn 18.
Source: Reuters