August 31, 2021
China has enacted another crackdown on the amount of time minors may play online video games.
The new limit is just three hours a week, with platforms such as Tencent only allowing gaming for minors between 8pm and 9pm on Fridays, on weekends and public holidays.
This is a significant reduction from the previous rules, which already limited gaming to 1.5 hours per day in 2019. Just a few weeks ago, Tencent was required to reduce the time children could play their mobile smash hit Honour of Kings to just one hour on weeknights and two hours on weekends.
The new restriction could potentially affect the share price of companies in a sector that has been fairly unstable of late.
Chinese authorities also want all titles to be connected to an anti-addiction system. The new rules include companies storing real name data on all users, increased reporting on the use of in-game transactions, and further regulatory controls.
For more information, view the original story from Engadget.
