cnn China bans kids from playing online video games during the week

[UltraMega]

Quote

China has barred online gamers under the age of 18 from playing on weekdays and limited their play to just three hours most weekends, marking a significant escalation of restrictions on the country's massive gaming industry.

 

Starting this week, minors will be allowed only an hour of play time between 8 pm and 9 pm on Friday, weekends and public holidays, according to a statement from Chinese media watchdog — the National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) — that was posted by state news agency Xinhua on Monday.

China bans kids from playing online video games during the week

WWW.MSN.COM

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China has barred online gamers under the age of 18 from playing on weekdays and limited their play to...

 

Damn man, that some serious government overreach. What a crazy rule. 

 

I bet tencent's stock value is tanking. 

 

[GanjaSMK]

I've figured the tech side of this is 'relatively' simple and possible, but how else could/would they enforce this?

 

That said I have no experience in China business / Chinese life other than what is presented to me via 'news' and 'articles', be they main stream or other outlets, so if anyone has intimate knowledge of this I'd really be interested in reading it...

[ENTERPRISE]

Much of the time I can see value in other cultures laws etc and I can see a benefit from limiting gaming to ensure that youths are doing other things and learning other skills. However I personally feel that this is too far in the wrong direction and I am not sure what benefit this has. To me, the only thing this serves is to annoy people and stifle up and coming gamers to the professional arena's. We all know that gamers headed pro happens prior to the age of 18, all I can see is this stunting there gaming industry.

[GanjaSMK]

I agree.  Really curious as to how this is intended to be controlled/monitored, especially from the business (monetary) side of the equation.

[ENTERPRISE]

12 minutes ago, GanjaSMK said:

I agree.  Really curious as to how this is intended to be controlled/monitored, especially from the business (monetary) side of the equation.

While China is very policed in general, unless they have the 100% compliance of parent...I cannot see this new law being effective. That being said, what I know of the culture is they are super law abiding...so maybe it will work.

[Diffident]

41 minutes ago, ENTERPRISE said:

While China is very policed in general, unless they have the 100% compliance of parent...I cannot see this new law being effective. That being said, what I know of the culture is they are super law abiding...so maybe it will work.

According to the New York Times article, it's the responsibility of the gaming companies to enforce this law.

 

Quote

The government said it would step up inspections to ensure that gaming companies were enforcing the restrictions.

 

Also you have to register with your real name in order to play so you can be monitored.

[ENTERPRISE]

13 hours ago, Diffident said:

According to the New York Times article, it's the responsibility of the gaming companies to enforce this law.

 

 

Also you have to register with your real name in order to play so you can be monitored.

That makes it different then. I cannot imagine the gaming companies are too pleased with this move on any level. Aside from stunting the industry, the gaming companies now have all that extra admin and compliance to adhere to.