January 14: China reducing video game time for minors
China announced that minors can only play video games for up to three hours a week.
Source: ABC News
Published: September 2021
China reducing video game time for minors
As of September 1st, China announced that minors can only play video games for up to three hours a week—an hour on Fridays, weekends and holidays. The new rule comes from China’s video game regulator and only applies to those aged under 18.
Minors are banned from playing during the school week, with the aim of protecting the physical and mental health of children.
Tencent—a Chinese multinational technology conglomerate—has rolled out facial recognition technology and a machine learning algorithm to identify underage players playing their games. Based on factors such as the time of day the game is played, how long it is played, and user behavior, players will be prompted to do a face scan to ensure their face matches the registered user.Â
It's worth noting that there's some interpretation of this policy as "parents can now delegate their identity to control minor's behavior", i.e. parents can give children more game time if they help pass that facial recognition. As many policies in China, I don't remember this is officially called out by the authority.