Chinese giant Tencent is preparing new restrictions for underage gamers in Honor of Kings. The company said it plans to further reduce the time they can spend in the game. She also intends to ban children under the age of 12 from spending money.
These measures became known shortly after Chinese state media called video games “poison” and “opium” for young people. As a result, the shares of Tencent and other gaming companies have seriously fallen in price.
In the near future, Chinese teenagers from 12 to 18 years old will be able to play Honor of Kings for only an hour on weekdays and two hours on weekends and holidays (previously, according to the law, it was possible to play for three hours on weekends). When exactly these restrictions will work, Tencent did not explain. But she indicated that after Honor of Kings, she would introduce them in the rest of her games.
Tencent is not the only company from China that announced today the fight against gambling addiction among young people. NetEase has launched a special summer campaign. Within its framework, the giant promised to add new age verification tools to the games for users and to monitor compliance with the rules more carefully.
Recall that Tencent started working with gaming addiction among young gamers in 2017. Then she allowed children under the age of 12 to play Honor of Kings no more than an hour a day, and teenagers 12-18 years old — no more than two hours. Later, the company imposed a “curfew” for minors, forbidding them to enter the title from 21:00 to 8:00, obliged them to play under real names and launched a facial recognition system.