Chinese gamers will have an increasingly difficult life: as reported by the official media, the National Press and Publication Administration has issued a note specifying that minors will only be able to play online for one hour a day, from 20.00 to 21.00 from Friday to Sunday, for a roof maximum of 3 hours per week.
This provision applies to all online games. The new restrictive measure is adopted in an attempt to stem the spread of video game addiction, a particularly widespread problem in China that leads young people to isolate themselves and lose their sense of reality. In fact, through the squeeze, it is believed that “the physical and mental health of minors will thus be protected more effectively”.
The Chinese development houses, which in recent years have been establishing themselves internationally (think of miHoYo with Genshin Impact), are obviously deeply affected by the provision: they will in fact have to limit minors’ access to their games, also paying particular attention to registration of users and guaranteeing access only through real data and facial recognition.
Press and publishing administrations at all levels are also called upon to do their part to ensure that these new regulations are respected, so as to effectively guide families, schools and other social sectors towards better protection of minors, in accordance with the law.
It is certainly not the first time that China introduces these kinds of restrictions. Until now, minors were allowed to play online on weekdays for a maximum of 90 minutes, with no connection from 22.00 to 8.00. On holidays and weekends they were allowed to play for up to 3 hours per day.
Unfortunately, video game addiction is a phenomenon that exists and is particularly widespread in Asian countries and beyond. According to some estimates of 2020 too in Italy about 300 thousand children would be at risk. There pandemic and the consequent restrictions have certainly not helped. It all lies in understanding how much this type of prohibition can help to concretely combat the problem, in the absence of adequate psychological help and support.
