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.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
ACTIONABLE ADVICE: The majority of chatbots tested provided guidance on weapons, tactics and target selections, with Perplexity and Meta AI deemed to be the least safe From school shootings to synagogue bombings, leading artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots helped researchers plot violent attacks, according to a study published on Wednesday that highlighted the technology’s potential for real-world harm. Researchers from the nonprofit watchdog Center for Countering Digital Hate and CNN posed as 13-year-old boys in the US and Ireland to test 10 chatbots, including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Deepseek and Meta AI. Eight of the chatbots assisted the make-believe attackers in more than half the responses, providing advice on “locations to target” and “weapons to use” in an attack, the study said. The chatbots had become a “powerful accelerant for
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
RSS