Chinese regulators have ordered a limit on video game playtime for children in the country during the monthlong winter school break to curb addiction according to a report from the South China Morning Post.
In line with this move, China-based gaming companies Tencent and NetEase have started enforcing a restriction for those under the age of 18, with Tencent only allowing children to play for a maximum of 15 hours between Jan 13 to Feb 15, and NetEase implementing slightly looser restrictions at 16 hours from Jan 15 to Feb 14.
The country had previously set a one-hour daily time limit on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays for younger gamers back in 2021, though no restrictions have been placed on social media content consumption.
The South China Morning Post further states that both companies have been utilising facial recognition to prevent children from using gaming accounts belonging to adults in attempts to bypass the time limits for several years now.
In a WeChat post last Thursday (Jan 9), Tencent said that it has tightened its detection measures to better detect and punish transgressors during the upcoming holiday.
It has also created a "risky account database" which flags adult accounts that may be borrowed by children, requiring facial recognition to verify users. Similar measures were put in place by NetEase in 2020.
