China has “solved” the issue of youth video game addiction, a report cowritten by the country’s top gaming industry body has said, a year after the government limited the number of hours young people can play a day.
China is the world’s biggest gaming market, but the industry — termed “spiritual opium” by state media — has been swept up in a tech regulatory crackdown marked by record fines, long investigations and the suspension of initial public offerings.
Since September last year, people under the age of 18 have only been allowed to play online between 8pm and 9pm on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays during the school term.
As a result, “more than 75 percent of minors play less than three hours a week, and game addiction has been basically solved,” said Monday’s report by the China Game Industry Group Committee, a top government-affiliated body, and data provider CNG.
“The anti-addiction systems adopted by gaming companies cover more than 90 percent of underage game users,” it said.
About 98 percent of people aged nine to 19 in China own a mobile phone and there are about 186 million Internet users aged 18 or younger, it added.
Gamers are required to use their identification cards when registering to play online to ensure that minors do not lie about their age. Companies are also prohibited from offering gaming services to young people outside government-mandated hours.
However, there have been recent signs that Beijing is softening its stance toward the sector. Officials have slowly started approving new titles after freezing approvals for nine months until April.
Last week, tech giant Tencent got its first license for a video game in 18 months, ending a dry spell that had threatened its position as the world’s top game maker.
A senior UN official has said he is “alarmed” that a peaceful Australian climate protester has been jailed for 15 months — and refused bail before her appeal — amid global outrage at her “disproportionate” punishment. On Friday, Deanna “Violet” Coco was sentenced to 15 months in prison for blocking a single lane of traffic on the Sydney Harbour Bridge in April in a protest staged to draw attention to the global climate emergency. “I am alarmed at a NSW court’s prison term against climate protestor Deanna Coco and refusal to grant bail until a March 2023 appeal hearing, ” UN Special
SECOND ATTEMPT: An overhaul of the criminal code is expected this month, after a similar move was in 2019 stymied by large-scale protests in the Muslim-majority country The Indonesian parliament is this month expected to pass a new criminal code that would penalize sex outside marriage with a punishment of up to one year in jail, officials have said. The legislative overhaul would also ban insulting the Indonesian president or state institutions, and expressing any views counter to the country’s state ideology. Cohabitation before marriage is also banned. Decades in the making, the new criminal code is expected to be passed on Dec. 15, Indonesian Deputy Minister of Justice Edward Omar Sharif Hiariej said. “We’re proud to have a criminal code that’s in line with Indonesian values,” he told Reuters
CARROT-AND-STICK: Authorities tightened control over virtual private networks, which protesters used to access banned non-Chinese news and social media apps Chinese authorities have initiated the highest “emergency response” level of censorship, according to leaked directives, including a crackdown on virtual private networks (VPNs) and other methods of bypassing online censorship after unprecedented protests demonstrated widespread public frustration with the “zero COVID” policy. The crackdown, including the tracking and questioning of protesters, comes alongside the easing of pandemic restrictions in an apparent carrot-and-stick approach to an outpouring of public grievances. During an extraordinary week in China, protests against “zero COVID” restrictions included criticism of the authoritarian rule of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — which was further highlighted by the death of
EASING RESTRICTIONS: China has not approved any foreign COVID-19 vaccines and is opting for those produced domestically, the US Director of National Intelligence said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unwilling to accept Western vaccines despite the challenges China is facing with COVID-19, and recent protests could affect his personal standing in the Chinese Communist Party, US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said on Saturday. Although China’s daily COVID-19 cases are near all-time highs, some cities are taking steps to loosen testing and quarantine rules after Xi’s “zero COVID” policy triggered a sharp economic slowdown and public unrest. Despite the social and economic impact of the virus, Xi “is unwilling to take a better vaccine from the West, and is instead relying on a vaccine
RSS