China’s Ministry of Education in April ordered online gaming companies to ensure that minors could not play from 10 p.m. each school night. In early August, the share prices of Tencent Holdings and other big Chinese video game companies fell sharply after a Chinese newspaper called their products “spiritual opium.” The article singled out Tencent, which owns Honor of Kings, a hugely popular game in China.
Chinese parents complained that children constantly found new ways to sneak past the limits on gaming hours, said a report issued in August by the government-funded Beijing Children’s Legal Aid and Research Center. Many parents, the report stated, “reported that their children had big changes in their temper and personality after becoming addicted to games, even as if they had become another person.”
Tencent, which already reduced the amount of time minors could spend on Honor of Kings, said it would abide by the new restrictions. In its latest financial disclosures, the company said that in the second quarter of 2021, players under 16 accounted for just 2.6 percent of its gross receipts for China gaming.
“Since 2017, Tencent has explored and applied various new technologies and functions for the protection of minors,” a spokeswoman for Tencent said in a statement. “That will continue, as Tencent strictly abides by and actively implements the latest requirements from the Chinese authorities.”
Raymond Zhong contributed reporting. Liu Yi contributed research.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/30/business/media/china-online-games.html
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