China Has Solved Youth Gaming Addiction Problem, Industry Claims
China has solved the problem of gaming addiction among its youth, says a report written jointly with the country’s gaming industry association, in words that may be accepted by the regulated industry. The comments came from a report by the China Industry Group Committee, which is affiliated with the online game publishing regulator, the China Game Industry Research Institute and data provider CNG, CNG said on its official WeChat account on Tuesday.
Chinese regulators in September of last year stepped in with new laws banning anyone under the age of 18 from playing video games for more than three hours a week, a tough social intervention they said was needed to pull the plug on a growing slowdown in what they described as. “spiritual opium”.
A month later, Chinese state media said loopholes allowing children to bypass new rules aimed at limiting gaming time to three hours a week should be removed to “prevent addiction.”
“In some online trading platforms, there are rental businesses and game accounts, users can bypass supervision by renting and buying accounts and playing online games without restrictions. This means that there are still loopholes for young people to enter online games, which should be paid attention to,” the report said. of the Communist Party’s official newspaper People’s Daily at the time.
The move came as part of a broader crackdown on China’s technology sector and was seen as an attempt to tighten and regulate the gaming industry, which was enacted shortly after a long-standing ban on the title.
CNG said the report found that more than 75 percent of young gamers now play games for less than 3 hours a week and praised Chinese game companies for achieving “remarkable results” after setting up anti-gaming programs.
It cited efforts from Tencent Holdings, NetEase and Perfect World, among others.
© Thomson Reuters 2022
