China curfew on children playing online games
In China, children under 18 years of age will be banned from playing online games between 10 am to 8 am. Children will be allowed to play only 90 minutes on weekdays and only for three hours on weekends and holidays.
China has taken this step to curb addiction to video games. Officials say that this addiction is harmful to the health of children.
China is one of the largest in-game markets in the world.
In the official guidelines issued by the government on Tuesday, the amount spent by minors on these games has also been limited.
Children playing games between the ages of eight and 16 can spend 200 yuan ($ 29) per month, while those aged 16 to 18 can spend up to 400 yuan on their gaming accounts.
Earlier restrictions
China is the world’s second-largest gaming market.
According to research firm News, for the first time this year, America’s earnings in this industry have surpassed China’s earnings.
China has been constantly criticizing the bad effects on video game youth.
In 2018, the Chinese government announced the formation of a gaming regulator in order to limit the number of new online games due to the lack of children’s eyesight due to gaming. Also, sports time and age restrictions can be imposed.
In the same year, China also stopped the approval of new video games, which lasted for the next nine months, which was a setback for this big industry.
Some big video game companies have shown activeness on the restrictions and rules of the government, but it is a challenging task to implement these restrictions and check the age.
Tencent, a large gaming company, also faced criticism when it limited the game time to one hour for children under 12 and two hours for children aged 12 to 18.
However, the new guidelines will apply to all online gaming platforms in China.
How dangerous video games
Last year, the World Health Organization considered game addiction (named gaming disorder) to be a state of mental health.
It has not been formally recognized in the recent American Psychiatry Association’s recent manual on psychiatry, but Internet gaming disorder has been reported as a condition of further study.
Some countries have considered playing a lot of games a big public health issue and in many places, there are private addiction clinics for its treatment.
