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All-night gaming marathons will soon be a thing of the past for some Chinese kids after internet giant Tencent began limiting the hours children can play several of its online games on Tuesday to "ensure children's healthy development".
Among the games affected by the change is the smash hit King of Glory, which leads the country’s booming online gaming industry with some 80 million daily active users. Concerns have been raised recently that long periods of online gaming can pose a serious threat to the health of the country's youth.
According to People’s Daily, a 17-year-old gamer in southern Guangdong province suffered a type of stroke in April after playing King of Glory for 40 hours consecutively.
Tencent, which ranks first in the world for gaming revenue, said in a statement that King of Glory was "supposed to bring joy…but excessive gaming brings joy to neither players nor their parents". It said it aimed to "dispel parents’ worries" by limiting the amount of time children spend gaming online.
King of Glory became the world's highest-grossing game this year, with estimated first-quarter revenue of around 6 billion yuan ($882 million), according to Xinhua News Agency.
Under the new measures, age verification will be applied. Users under 12 years old are now limited to one hour of play a day, and will not be permitted to sign in after 9 pm, while those between 12 and 18 years old are limited to two hours per day.
China is not the first country that has tried to ration children’s access to online games. Several countries have launched various measures to address excessive gaming habits.
In 2011, South Korea put forward a law banning children’s access between midnight and 6 am. In Japan, users spending more time than a given threshold in a month are reminded by pop-up windows.
In February 2017, China introduced draft legislation that would ban minors from playing online games between midnight and 8 am. Tencent, however, thought it still lacks ‘clear regulations to guard against mobile gaming addiction.’
This lack of a clear national policy gave the company the incentive to fill the gap. Its new controls, which it calls the "three broad axes", mean that those who play beyond the allotted time period will be "forced to go offline".
In addition to placing a cap on the amount of time children can play, an upper limit on the amount they can spend will also be introduced to rein in "minors' irrational consumption".
Other measures implemented earlier this year include a real-name authentication system and software that enables parents to place electronic locks on the game.
"We also call on parents to spend more time with their children," the company added in its statement.
So far, enforcement and reliable age verification remain the main obstacles to successfully addressing the problem. The efficacy of the measures still needs time to be proved.
Source: AFP, BBC
Editor: Jiao Jie, Zheng Peihan(intern)
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