The Chinese government believes that the video game industry should not pursue profit at all costs but should do more to combat addiction among the very young. Beijing is tightening regulations.
Games are very lucrative in China. In the first half of this year alone, they generated a turnover of 17 billion euros. But some Chinese children are glued to their screens all day. And this is increasingly criticized because of the harmful consequences: poorer vision, impact on school results, lack of exercise and risk of addiction.
On Wednesday, the Chinese authorities called on the major players, including Tencent and NetEase, and urged them to “break with the pursuit of profit as the sole purpose,” reports the official Xinhua news agency. They were told that the companies must “strictly apply” the new regulations with time limits for gamers under 18.
Beijing decided at the end of August that minors could play online for a maximum of three hours a week. The producers must also remove obscene and violent content from games and ‘unhealthy tendencies, such as the cult of money and effeminacy’.
The communist rulers already banned certain reality programs on television last week and ordered TV makers to paint a more masculine image of men. The authorities hope in this way to counteract the declining birth rate in the country.
