It is Zhang Yuchen’s last summer break before high school, but events have taken an unwelcome turn — the 14-year-old’s game time has been decimated as China’s tech firms try to dispel accusations that they are selling “spiritual opium” to the country’s youth.
An edict by gaming giant Tencent means that players aged 12 or younger can no longer make in-game purchases in multiplayer battle smash-hit Honor of Kings, while those aged 18 or younger are locked out after two hours during holidays and one hour on school nights.
“I wanted to cry,” Zhang said as the news ricocheted across the world’s largest gaming market, which soaked up US$20 billion in the first half of this year alone.
Photo: AFP
The changes — incontestable and imposed far too quickly for the liking of Zhang and his peer group — have come as Beijing scours the tech scene for signs of any firm growing too big, owning too much data or having too great a hold over China’s people.
Gaming appears to be the latest target for regulators who have already strafed mega-apps providing ride-hailing, personal finance and online learning, as the Chinese Communist Party refines the type of capitalism it wants for society.
Minors complain that the measures are too sweeping, affecting even teenagers who have finished their university entrance exams and just want to relax.
“I’m on vacation now and have nothing to do, but I can only play for a short while,” a 17-year-old student surnamed Li said.
“It’s quite upsetting,” she added, noting that older teens have more self-control and should not be forcibly stopped from playing.
She gets automatically locked out after hitting the two-hour holiday limit.
However, there are loopholes, Li added, as playing an hour on different games could still lead to teens gaming for the same hours as before.
Others have circumvented the policy altogether, by borrowing an adult’s account or using their parents’ mobile phones.
“By borrowing an account now, I can play two to three hours a day and of course, game after 10pm,” said another 17-year-old student on condition of anonymity.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
US President Donald Trump on Friday said Washington was “locked and loaded” to respond if Iran killed protesters, prompting Tehran to warn that intervention would destabilize the region. Protesters and security forces on Thursday clashed in several Iranian cities, with six people reported killed, the first deaths since the unrest escalated. Shopkeepers in Tehran on Sunday last week went on strike over high prices and economic stagnation, actions that have since spread into a protest movement that has swept into other parts of the country. If Iran “violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
RSS