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 generations. 

Children playing with a phone on a street in Shanghai, China

Image Source: REUTERS/Aly Song

This is not the first time that China has established extensive rules on minors playing video games. In 2018, Beijing restructured the approval process for video games and stopped approving video games for publication in China for approximately nine months. In 2019, the Chinese government announced to limit minors to less than 90 minutes of online video gaming on weekdays and 3 hours on weekends. Another restriction was also enforced to limit the amount of money that minors can spend on video games by setting a cap each month, ranging from $28 to $57, depending on the age. In addition, minors were required to register using their real names and national identification numbers before logging in and playing the online video games developed by gaming companies such as Tencent and NetEase. 

The policy gathered very polarizing responses in China. Many Chinese parents who have children under the age of 18 responded to the policy with applause. They believed that their children spent too much time playing video games, significantly hindering their academic success. With the new restrictions on video games, they thought this would effectively prevent their children's addiction to video games, allowing their children to have higher achievements. On the contrary, the policy received a large number of complaints and criticisms from the people on various social media platforms in China. Some thought that it was irrational, inappropriate, and arbitrary for the Chinese government to put large amounts of restrictions on gaming, a part of the private life of an individual. Some criticisms also pointed out that it was not part of the government's responsibility to limit gaming time but a part of the caregivers' or the parents' responsibility. 

A man is playing an online game on a computer at an internet cafe in Beijing, China

Image Source: REUTERS/Florence Lo

So, how might this new policy affect the video game industry in China?  According to Newzoo, China is currently the largest video game market in the world, with 664 million players and game revenues of $44 billion in 2020. In addition, approximately 62.5% of minors play online video games often, and 13.2% of minors play mobile video games for more than two hours a day on working days. So, the new gaming limit was definitely a piece of bad news for some of the tech and gaming companies in China, specifically for Tencent. As the creator of the massively popular and one of the world's highest-grossing mobile video games named "Honor of Kings," Tencent will undoubtedly be hit by the new gaming restrictions on minors. The impact, in fact, is already apparent. In the past month, Tencent's stock overall plunged by approximately 3%. 

There might be something else behind the new gaming restrictions on minors as well. The new policy might be an attempt for the Chinese government to regulate the tech giants in China. This year, many massive firms in the technology sector, such as Alibaba and Didi, were targeted by the Chinese governments, and it is not a coincidence. As these tech companies continued to gain more power and collect and control more data from the consumers, the Chinese government became increasingly uneasy about their growing influence, especially concerned over their monopolistic practices and handling of user data. Therefore, the Chinese government felt the need to impose regulations and provide stricter oversight on these tech companies to ensure fair competition. And it is possible that the new gaming restrictions were an attempt at it. 

A boy is playing video games on his phone on a street in Shanghai, China

Image Source: REUTERS/Aly Song

It is important to consider the effectiveness of this new gaming restriction policy. Will limiting children's playtime help to reduce video game addiction? Well, maybe. But for those who want to play, they can always find a way. For example, they can register an account under their parents' names to have unlimited hours to access the game. Or, they can abuse glitches to avoid the anti-addiction measures that are imposed in the game. So, to reduce video game addiction among minors in China, the parents need to take on more responsibility, provide better education for their children, and help their children develop better self-control. Imposing gaming restrictions alone will not solve the problem.