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[Blablurn]

(Beijing) — Parents of gaming-addicted adolescents soon should be assured that their children will not be playing compulsively into the wee hours of the night until daybreak, as a new draft law will impose a curfew on online gaming for minors.

In a drive to curb what it calls “excessive gaming,” China’s Cyberspace Administration has published online protection guidelines for minors, stipulating that gaming companies adopt a real-name registration system. This will allow systems to identify adolescents and disable their accounts from midnight to 8 a.m.

The companies will also be required to develop software to limit the number of hours adolescent users can play each day and forbid them from accessing certain violent or inappropriate game functions or scenes that includes depictions of sex, suicide, and even alcohol and tobacco consumption.

The Cyberspace Administration has solicited public feedback on the draft rules twice starting in October, and they have been submitted to the National People’s Congress for approval. When the rules will come into effect is unknown.

Analysts say how the law plays out and its effect on the industry depends largely on how strictly the personal identification backed registration requirements, which grants each user a single account, are enforced.

“There have been similar efforts to stem gaming addiction in the past, such as restricting the number of active hours for an account each day,” said Clark Guo, a gaming analyst at consultancy iResearch.

“But if regulators cannot nail down an effective real-name registration system, any hurdle could be easily circumvented. Underage children could simply register with their parents’ IDs, or switch to a second and third account when one expires.”

The gaming industry is on edge as it waits to see if the real-name registration requirement will kick in once the regulations come into effect.

“Strictly enforcing ID-based registration for internet games would be a sharp jab to gaming companies, dampening player’ enthusiasm,” said Gu Haoyi, vice president of Beijing-based gaming developer Canwell Games.

A spokesperson from NetEase, one of the largest developers and operators in China, said the company was looking into possible ways to deal with and implement the new guidelines.

Many large game developers such as Tencent Holdings Ltd., Changyou.com Ltd. and NetEase Inc. have provided parental supervision programs, which allow guardians to monitor or even disable their children’s accounts through short message notifications.

However, the procedures parents must follow to obtain oversight of their children’s account activities are extensive, and such initiatives have had little effect on curbing gaming addiction.

Though parents have applauded the draft guidelines, saying they are long overdue, many remain skeptical as to whether they will pan out.

“I remember when I was in high school, the owners of the mom-and-pop internet cafes would lend us their IDs to help us get across anti-addiction systems,” recalls one parent using the alias “Yirenfen” on Chinese social-media site Weibo. “Of course, even if it were put into action, it still won’t prevent kids from indulging in offline games after lights-out,” he added.

Tencent, China’s largest video game developer and publisher, responded to the guidelines by promising to strictly abide by the rules and regulations should they come into effect. However, the company noted that the laws are still subject to adjustments as they are in the review stages.

While Guo said that their impact shouldn’t be overestimated, as late-night hours are no longer the most distinct hours of heavy gaming with the rise of mobile devices, companies still believe this portends unfavorable conditions for the industry.

“The draft laws represent a trend of tightening regulations for the industry, and translate into a loss of users and is bad news for us,” Gu said.

Source: http://www.caixinglobal.com/2017-02-07/101051016.html

 

[Kazuo Hirai]

Shock

 

[Blablurn]

One thing, not mentioned in the thread title, is the possible introduction of an ID-based registration for internet games. Huge if it happens.

 

[Calvero]

Tencent you have ot stop this

 

[60EffPeeEss]

Most of my best gaming memories come from staying up on school nights to play Shadowbane with American friends (I'm from Scotland). Bed at 5 or 6am, wake at 7am, go to school. So many nights spent this way, doing PVP and chatting shit on Ventrilo.

Sadly, the Chinese government probably don't want citizens fraternising with the outside world, so this kind of legislation will probably pass.

 

[WhateverItTakes]

Regulating free time is not something a government should be doing.

 

[Chairmanchuck]

One thing, not mentioned in the thread title, is the possible introduction of an ID-based registration for internet games. Huge if it happens.

Blizzard is actually already doing that. If you wanna play Battle net, you have to give them your ID card number.
In Overwatch for example minors can only get lootboxes for 3 hours each day.

Regulating free time is not something a government should be doing.

The big problem in China, and it is a huge problem, are Internet cafés/bars. Minors tell their parents "I go to a friend to learn", but instead play the whole afternoon/evening there after school. I somehow think that chinese teens somehow get far more addicted to those games than westerners, at least from what I saw when I lived there.
I went to an Internet bar 2 weeks ago and it was full of minors playing OW, Dota 2, LoL etc. And that was not in Downtown Beijing, but a small city that had like those cafés/bars every 300m.

 

[Kazuo Hirai]

One thing, not mentioned in the thread title, is the possible introduction of an ID-based registration for internet games. Huge if it happens.

You can use others' id to registrate, It happened years ago

 

[Acidote]

I'm not OK with so much over regulation, registration and ID.

That said, those would become my favorite hours to play online.

 

[Yohane]

Why only until 8am? Shouldn't be the ban also during school hours?

 

[Chairmanchuck]

Why only until 8am? Shouldn't be the ban also during school hours?

Thats when they cant be in an internet-bar to play. As soon as you are missing in class, you get a call from the school.

(Actually the same in Germany).

 

[Cartman86]

Is it common for kids to be out of the house at a cafe after midnight? That seems like the only time this would even by sort of reasonable. Otherwise let the parents deal with what the kid does at home. Especially since there are already methods to limit time.

 

[Fat4all]

but my runescape ((

oh wait, i mean, im 27 ;((((

 

[jon bones]

It's not a bad rule for parents to have, but from an American standpoint this feels like an overreach of government.

 

[Sakujou]

how to check if this is a minor?

Thats when they cant be in an internet-bar to play. As soon as you are missing in class, you get a call from the school.

(Actually the same in Germany).

not everywhere in germany, but most places.

the problem missing is that most kids are registered to go to cram schools for prepping to go to the best unis...

but if you miss there, no one cares. thats the major problem. its a societal problem to release this pressure from the kids, the games/ban is actual not the problem, its just that kids dont have free time to do what they want during the day.

 

[~Cross~]

Pretty sure they do this in korea already. You have to use your korean ID number to make an account and 99% of the time you have to link it to a phone number attached to that ID to activate it.

 

[Trojan]

I love that China has a government agency called the "Cyberspace Administration"

 

[Possumowner]

Something parents should be monitoring,not bloody governments

 

[Koren]

You wonder sometimes what are parents for, if school and government have to do this kind of stuff...

I especially don't understand the parents that applaud, saying it's long overdue. Can't they enact the same thing themselves? They need a 3rd party for that?


(on a slightly related matter, I wonder when Nintendo will follow suit )

Thats when they cant be in an internet-bar to play. As soon as you are missing in class, you get a call from the school.

(Actually the same in Germany).

It's the same in France in several places, but what's funny is that I teach to young adults (prep school), in structures that also deal with 14-17 y.o., and while the same is still in effect (mostly because they haven't implemented a function to disable it), since the registered number for an adult is his own phone number, my students receive a SMS when they miss a class ^_^

 

[True Fire]

I mean, I believe in internet freedom and I've spent many hours of my teenage years online at 4am, but China isn't exactly known for its internet freedom anyway. So they might as well make people's lives better if they're going to oppress people

 

[MrChocolate]

You wonder sometimes what are parents for, if school and government have to do this kind of stuff...

I especially don't understand the parents that applaud, saying it's long overdue. Can't they enact the same thing themselves? They need a 3rd party for that?


(on a slightly related matter, I wonder when Nintendo will follow suit )



It's the same in France in several places, but what's funny is that I teach to young adults (prep school), in structures that also deal with 14-17 y.o., and while the same is still in effect (mostly because they haven't implemented a function to disable it), since the registered number for an adult is his own phone number, my students receive a SMS when they miss a class ^_^

Since a single father now can barely mantain a family, both parents have to work from 8 to 18 (or even more in China, in some cases). And who takes care of the children? Our saviour, Dota 2 (or other casual games, or TV)
It happened in western countries, it was bound to happen in China.

 

[UnluckyKate]

So like Korea?

 

[The Cartographer]

Something parents should be monitoring,not bloody governments

We're talking about China here, China.

 

[~Cross~]

So like Korea?

Basically. It just extends into school hours instead of 6am like in Korea.

Korea's went in effect in 2011.