NetEase to limit the amount of gaming spent for China's youth
Chinese legend Netease Games has relocated China's youth for the first time to restrict their time spent in playing games, which exposes the country's growing investigations into the gaming area.
Gaming companies have faced more inspection for their alleged involvement in childhood gaming addiction. Last year, state's mouthpiece People's Daily called Tencent's online multiplayer title "Honor of Kings", which says that there is a need for greater regulation of social games.
Netease will be limited to one hour of gameplay and Saturday and Sunday for two hours, users will be limited to 12 hours of age and Monday to Friday, the company said in a statement. Gamers between the ages of 13 to 18 will be allowed to play two hours on weekdays and three hours at weekends.
Netease will also prohibit underage players from logging between 9:30 pm. 8:30 am every day. Earlier this month, the system will be implemented on 15 mobile games, including "Fantasy Westward Journey" and "Knife Out".
Any unregistered users who have not gone through actual name verification will be limited to two hours of game testing, not more than three games. A company spokesman told that the company is planning to confirm its user data against police records for the purpose of verification.
The company through its NetEase Parenting Care platform will also give parents more control over the gaming habits of their children. This facility allows caregivrs to get information about time and in-app purchases, as well as apply for their children to be restricted from certain games.
This step follows the rollout of many features, including Netease's opponent Tenceent's last year's play limit. The company implemented features including real name verification and face recognition for the ban. Tencent vowed to expand the real name verification system for all of its games during 2019, its users need to confirm their identity against the police database.
China's gaming industry had a nine-month ban on issuing a new game license. Approval began at the end of December. However, Sector has seen revenue growth in its slowest first half in 10 years, more than 40% of Chinese-listed gaming companies saw a decrease in year-on-year profit during the first three-quarters of 2018.