China bans children from playing online games for more than 3 hours a week

There are more than 110 million minors playing video games in China

Children and teenagers under the age of 18 in China will only be allowed to play online video games for up to 3 hours a week, according to new rules published Monday by China's National Publication Administration (NPPA).

The move is a fresh blow to the country's gaming giants such as Tencent and NetEase, who have faced an onslaught of regulation this year in areas from antitrust to data protection that has scared investors and wiped out billions of dollars of stock value. Chinese technology.

According to a translated notice about the new rules, video games will be allowed to be played by people under the age of 18 in China for one hour a day between eight and nine in the evening on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays only and holidays associated with certain occasions, and the agency described the rules as a way to protect Children's physical and mental health.

The rules will apply to companies that provide online gaming services to minors, limiting their ability to serve such users outside of established business hours, and will also not allow companies to provide services to users who are not logged in with their real name, which simply prevents them from remaining ignorant of their users' backgrounds.

The latest rules significantly reduce the amount of time during which minors can play games online. Under the 2019 rules, those under 18 were allowed to play games for an hour and a half a day.

Tencent said that only a small amount of gaming revenue comes from younger players in China

“There are more than 110 million minors playing video games in China today, and we expect the new limits will lead to a decrease in the number of players and a decrease in the amount of time spent,” said Daniel Ahmed, a senior analyst at Niko Partners, a market research firm. Under-18s are in the game.

“However, we do not expect the decrease in spending to have a significant material impact on the bottom line of gaming companies given the time and spending constraints that have already been applied to minors over the past two years, so we expect a less severe impact on overall growth rates as spending among minors has been low. actually".

Earlier, Tencent said that only a small amount of gaming revenue comes from younger players in China. In the second quarter, 2.6 percent of total game receipts in China were from players under 16 years old.

And the US-listed shares of "NetEase" (one of the gaming giants in China) fell 6.7% in morning trading.

Tencent said in a statement on its WeChat account that it will implement the new requirements, and that it supports the new rules.

The Chinese gaming giant has taken measures to anticipate regulators in recent months. In July, Tencent required players to perform a facial recognition check on their phones to check if they were adults.

Beijing has long been concerned about gaming addiction among the country's youth, with its devices banned for about 14 years until 2014, and a state newspaper published an article this month calling online gaming an "opium" and calling for more restrictions.

The article was deleted and later republished with a new title, and reference to "opium" was removed, but that raised concerns among investors about the potential for further restrictions on gaming.