China has “solved” the issue of youth video game addiction, a report cowritten by the country’s top gaming industry body has said, a year after the government limited the number of hours young people can play a day.
China is the world’s biggest gaming market, but the industry — termed “spiritual opium” by state media — has been swept up in a tech regulatory crackdown marked by record fines, long investigations and the suspension of initial public offerings.
Since September last year, people under the age of 18 have only been allowed to play online between 8pm and 9pm on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays during the school term.
As a result, “more than 75 percent of minors play less than three hours a week, and game addiction has been basically solved,” said Monday’s report by the China Game Industry Group Committee, a top government-affiliated body, and data provider CNG.
“The anti-addiction systems adopted by gaming companies cover more than 90 percent of underage game users,” it said.
About 98 percent of people aged nine to 19 in China own a mobile phone and there are about 186 million Internet users aged 18 or younger, it added.
Gamers are required to use their identification cards when registering to play online to ensure that minors do not lie about their age. Companies are also prohibited from offering gaming services to young people outside government-mandated hours.
However, there have been recent signs that Beijing is softening its stance toward the sector. Officials have slowly started approving new titles after freezing approvals for nine months until April.
Last week, tech giant Tencent got its first license for a video game in 18 months, ending a dry spell that had threatened its position as the world’s top game maker.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS