Gaming Addiction In China Gets Under Control

China declared war on excessive gaming a while ago, and since then young gamers in particular have had to live with their hobby with various restrictions. The world’s most populous country has now officially got the problem under control.

In China, as in most countries that are at a high technological level, games are extremely popular. But the communist government does not think much of the hobbies of many millions of its citizens, especially when they are minors. 

That is also the reason why numerous measures have been implemented: for a while now, children and young people under the age of 18 have only been allowed to play for three hours a week, and that is only allowed on three days of the week, more precisely on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.

As Reuters reported, China has now announced that the measures have borne fruit. The China Game Industry Group Committee writes in a report that the problem once described as “spiritual opium” has been brought under control.

75 percent follow the rules

According to the Chinese regulators, the restrictions were able to achieve “remarkable results”. According to this, more than 75 percent of all under-18-year-olds follow the regulations.

This conclusion is likely to be politically motivated to some extent. Because Chinese gaming companies can now be more or less sure that no further restrictions are planned. The country’s gaming regulators are patting themselves on the back and publishers can go back to business as usual without having to fear new measures.

Incidentally, the “remarkable results” are less surprising when you look at them backward. Because 25 percent do not follow the three-hour rule, and that is certainly a lot in a country with around 1.4 billion people.