bussidv37.xyz - September 2022 marks one year the Chinese Government has implemented restrictions on playing games for children, especially those aged 18 and under. In this regulation, the Government limits playing time to only 3 hours a week.

Impact of Game Time Restrictions in China

The restrictions are an attempt by the Chinese authorities to eradicate addiction to playing games for minors. This policy, which has been implemented since September 2021, limits playing time to 3 days a week, from Friday to Sunday and national holidays, from 8 to 9 pm. Reporting from Niko Partnerts, the following is the impact of a year of implementing this rule:

Significant Changes to Playtime

This restriction policy has been implemented by the majority of young people in this Bamboo Curtain country where 77% of young gamers have reduced their playing time in a week. Of the 77% of children who apply these rules, 54% of them have heeded the rules to play 3 hours or less a week according to the time that has been set.

As a result of this policy, the number of young gamers also decreased significantly to 82.6 million players in 2022. This number decreased quite significantly compared to its peak in 2020 which reached 122 million young players.

Despite the significant decline, Niko predicts that the number of young gamers will continue to increase to 114.6 million in 2026 as young gamers, parents and game developers make adjustments to this rule.

This rule still has loopholes

From the results of this report, Niko Partnerts also found the fact that although it has been widely applied, there are still many violations of this rule. As many as 17% of young people play 3 hours or less a week including playing outside the specified hours. In addition, it is also known that 29% of children still play games more than 3 hours per week including playing outside the set hours.

Of the 29% of young people who do not heed this rule, 82% of them circumvent this rule by using an adult account (family or friend) to still be able to play games outside the specified hours. Of these, 36% of parents actually allow their children to use their data to buy games and in-game content.

In this report, it is also known that the international Steam version is a widely used platform to access Government-restricted PC games. The underlying reason for this trend is that the Steam platform is unregulated and widespread.

Live Streaming and Transactions Are Also Restricted

Restriction policies are also applied in the live streaming area. In May 2022, China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism ordered live streaming platforms to implement a system that restricts minors from accessing live streaming platforms after 10 p.m. each day. Previously, the government had also implemented rules that prohibited live streaming content for games that did not have a license.

In addition, the Government also pressures application developers to implement facial recognition features to access applications to prevent children using their parents' or siblings' accounts from circumventing this rule, as well as requiring account rental and trading platforms to use Identity Cards in the transaction process to avoid account sales. to minors.

Sanctions and Pressure Against Game Companies

Chinese authorities have warned and testified against game companies that do not comply with this rule. While large companies can do quite well, some smaller companies struggle to enforce this policy. For example, a game company in Shangrau, Jiangxi Province was found operating a game without anti-addictive features and receiving warnings, until it was found to be proven to be making illegal profits and was fined $16,000 or around Rp. 240 million.

This restriction rule is one of many policies implemented by the government to control the development of the game industry in China. In the last 2 years, the Government has actively tightened the rules on game standards that will be published in China from both local and international developers.

Well, that's information about the impact of the game time limit rule in China after a year of being implemented. What do you think about the application of this rule, brott? Please write your feedback in the comments column yes!