China to limit children’s online gaming to 3 hours a week

Associated Press

BEIJING — China is banning children from playing online games for much than 3 hours a week, the harshest regularisation truthful acold connected the crippled manufacture arsenic Chinese regulators proceed cracking down connected the exertion sector.

Minors successful China tin lone play games betwixt 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. connected Fridays, weekends and connected nationalist holidays starting Sept. 1, according to a announcement from the National Press and Publication Administration.

That limits gaming to 3 hours a week for astir weeks of the year, down from a erstwhile regularisation acceptable successful 2019 that allowed minors play games for an hr and a fractional per time and 3 hours connected nationalist holidays.

The caller regularisation affects immoderate of China’s largest exertion companies, including gaming elephantine Tencent, whose Honor of Kings online multiplayer crippled is hugely fashionable globally, arsenic good arsenic gaming institution NetEase.

Tencent’s banal terms closed down 0.6% astatine 465.80 Hong Kong dollars connected Monday up of the regulator’s announcement. Its marketplace capitalization of $573 cardinal is down much than $300 cardinal from its February peak, a diminution adjacent to much than the full worth of Nike Inc. oregon Pfizer Inc.

New York-listed NetEase’s banal was down astir 9% astatine the market’s open.

The gaming restrictions are portion of an ongoing crackdown connected exertion companies, amid concerns that exertion firms — galore of which supply ubiquitous messaging, payments and gaming services — whitethorn person an outsized power connected society.

Earlier this month, Tencent said it would bounds gaming clip for minors to an hr a time and 2 hours during holidays, arsenic good arsenic prohibition children nether the property of 12 from making in-game purchases.

The institution issued the curbs hours aft a state-affiliated paper criticized the gaming manufacture and called games “spiritual opium.”

Regulators said successful Monday’s announcement that they would fortify supervision and summation the frequence of inspections of online crippled companies to guarantee that they travel the regulations closely.Chinese authorities successful caller months person targeted e-commerce and online education, and person implemented caller regulations to curb anti-competitive behaviour aft years of accelerated maturation successful the exertion sector.

Last month, authorities banned companies that supply tutoring successful halfway schoolhouse subjects from making a profit, wiping retired billions successful marketplace worth from online acquisition companies specified arsenic TAL Education and Gaotu Techedu.