In China, minors will be banned from playing for more than three hours a week
The Chinese authorities have prepared another restriction. Starting in September, local children will be able to spend no more than three hours a week in online games. Moreover, it will be possible to play only at a strictly set time.
Information about this appeared on the website of the Chinese National Press and Publications Administration (NPPA).
According to the new rules, underage gamers will be able to play online games on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 20:00 to 21:00. On other days, apparently, it is impossible to play at all. The only exception is public holidays, when children will also be allowed to play for one hour in the evening.
Previously, the rules were less strict. Since 2019, children have been allowed to play for three hours on holidays, and for an hour and a half on other days at any time from 8:00 to 22:00.
In addition, minors will now have to use their real name in all online games. It probably wasn’t necessary before.
According to the Bloomberg business portal, after the announcement of the authorities, NetEase shares lost 9.3% in value. Prosus, the largest European shareholder of Tencent, also fell in price. The stock price of Tencent itself has not collapsed yet, but, according to experts, this may happen later.
“Three hours a week is too little. Such a policy will have a negative impact on Tencent, among others,” said Stephen Leung, Executive director of UOB Kay Hian. “I thought that over time the restrictions would begin to weaken, but in fact it’s not like that at all. This will certainly hurt the shares of technology companies that have begun to grow.”
According to analyst Daniel Ahmad, 110 million underage gamers now live in China. Their contribution to the revenue of local gaming companies is relatively small. For example, users under the age of 16 account for 2.6% of in-game spending in Tencent games.
By the way, Tencent also recently announced stricter limits for children. In early August, the company said that it was going to ban teenagers aged 12-18 from playing Honor of Kings for more than an hour on weekdays and two hours on weekends and holidays.
All this is happening against the background of the growing attention of the Chinese authorities to the technology giants.
Earlier this year, the government launched an antitrust investigation against Alibaba Group and other giants. Last month, the pro-government media criticized video games, calling them an “electronic drug”, which caused the shares of Tencent, NetEase and several other companies to collapse. Two weeks ago, a person close to the government joined the board of directors of ByteDance. And last Friday, officials said they wanted to ban large Internet companies from conducting IPOs in the United States.
