Middle and High School Students Restricted from Weekday Gaming... "Only 1 Hour Allowed on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and Holidays"

Online Games Completely Banned from Monday to Thursday
Allowed Only 1 Hour After 8 PM on Weekends

On the 1st of last month, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, President Xi Jinping, who is also the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, delivered a congratulatory speech at Tiananmen Square in the capital city of Beijing.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Minwoo Lee] In China, youths under the age of 18 will only be allowed to play online games for one hour each on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, and will be prohibited from playing at other times.

On the 30th, major foreign media outlets reported, citing China's state-run Xinhua News Agency, that the National Press and Publication Administration, which oversees the gaming sector in China, announced regulations to this effect.

Accordingly, youths under 18 in China will only be permitted to play online games from 8 to 9 p.m. local time on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. Game companies are prohibited from allowing youths to play outside these hours. Additionally, youths must undergo real-name verification procedures to play games.

Previously, Chinese authorities limited minors' online gaming time to three hours per day on holidays and one and a half hours on other days. However, as China has tightened regulations on IT companies, restrictions related to youths have also become more stringent.

In fact, on the 3rd, when Chinese state media criticized online games as "spiritual opium," Tencent, a leading platform company and major game publisher in China, promptly announced it would implement stricter restrictions on minors' gaming. The daily weekday gaming time for minors was reduced from one and a half hours to one hour, and holiday gaming time was cut from three hours to two hours. For children under 12, in-game item purchases during gameplay will also be prohibited.

Meanwhile, the National Press and Publication Administration has decided to strengthen supervision to ensure that game companies properly enforce usage time limits and anti-addiction systems.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.