No summer treat for China’s young gamers: Tencent says three hours a week game time limit remains
- Tencent says there was ‘a misunderstanding’ regarding online rumours that children will be allowed to play an hour a day during summer
- Gamers younger than 18 can only play a total of 21 hours during the seven-week holiday, prompting a comparison to China’s one-child policy
Tencent Holdings, the world’s largest video gaming company by revenue, told China’s young gamers they should expect no reprieve from the country’s stringent limit on online game time during this summer holiday.
As in the past, minors aged below 18 can only play from 8pm to 9pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. That gives minors 21 hours of total game time during the rest of July and August, the tech giant said in a notice posted on Monday, dashing hopes that the limit would be temporarily relaxed.
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China limits online gaming time for young people to 3 hours a week
It marked the country’s most stringent measure yet to tackle video gaming addiction among young people.
Before Tencent’s announcement, rumours had been swirling on Chinese social media that young gamers would be allowed to play an hour a day during the summer. Tencent’s clarification, however, left no room for hope.
“Did you hear that gamers can play every day during the summer holiday? There might be a bit of a misunderstanding,” Tencent Games said in its post. “It’s better to breathe in some fresh air instead of getting addicted to playing games.”
Although Tencent has been careful to toe Beijing’s line and has stressed that young gamers only contribute a small proportion of its revenue, the Shenzhen-based giant’s earnings have suffered amid tightened regulations on the video gaming industry.
On Monday, Tencent also warned young players against trying to bypass restrictions by renting or buying game accounts from the grey market, adding that the company has launched a new version of its facial recognition system designed specifically to weed out such offences.
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In the latest update, users who log on through accounts deemed “high risk” of coming from the grey market must go through a facial recognition verification process during the game. Those who fail to pass within a set time period will have their accounts restricted, according to Tencent.
Some internet users said the rules were too strict.
“The children are quite miserable. They can’t even relax a bit during the holiday,” Weibo user Tubaidao commented under the topic “Tencent’s clarification on whether children can play games every day during the summer holiday”.
