China restricts children from playing games during Tet

Winter vacation in China for primary, middle and high school students runs from January 12 to February 16, including the Lunar New Year. According to Tencent’s calendar, Chinese children are limited to playing games for a total of 15 hours over 32 days from January 13 to February 13. Meanwhile, NetEase said gamers under 18 are limited to playing games for no more than 16 hours between January 15 and February 14.

In August 2021, Chinese regulators imposed game play limits on children in an effort to curb gaming addiction among young people. Under the new rules, minors are only allowed to play games for one hour a day on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. However, there are no limits on other entertainment apps.

China tries to control youth gaming addiction

For years now, Tencent and NetEase have been using facial recognition technology to ensure that children cannot use adult accounts to circumvent the law.

According to SCMP , Tencent upgraded its monitoring system by building a database of risky accounts. Accounts suspected of being lent by adults to children will automatically trigger facial recognition to request identification. Since 2018, Tencent has added this feature to popular games such as Honor of Kings and Peacekeeper Elite , the Chinese version of PUBG Mobile . Meanwhile, NetEase allows parents to manage their children's gaming time and spending, and can even block deposits into accounts.

According to a report released by the China Digital Audio- Video Publishing Association, the proportion of minors playing games for more than three hours a week in 2024 will drop to 24.9%, compared to 37.2% in 2021. In addition, 59.04% of gamers under 18 said they do not spend money on games.

However, the controls are not completely effective. According to SCMP , in 2024, China will have about 200 million internet users under the age of 18, but a quarter of them will still "bypass" the gaming time limit by using the personal information of their parents or grandparents to log in or switch to offline games.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/trung-quoc-han-che-tre-em-choi-game-trong-dip-tet-185250128201334285.htm