Three Hours a Week: China Imposes New Video Game Restrictions on Minors
On Aug 30, 2021, China announced that it would be restricting the amount of time that under-18s can spend on online video games to just three hours a week . For minors under 18, the new regulation specifies that all online video games in China can only provide an hour of service on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and holidays, from 8 pm to 9 pm in China Standard Time. The new policy applies to video games on all types of electronic devices, including phones, tablets, and computers. Now, almost every online video game in China requires a real-name registration and authentication before a player can log in. As the phenomenon of video gaming addiction continues to erode the minors in China, a Chinese state-run newspaper described online video games as " spiritual opium " at the beginning of Aug 2021. Authorities in China claimed that this new regulation aimed to solve the problem of online gaming addiction within minors in China and protect the physical and mental health of future g