China's New Youth Online Gaming Restrictions Birth Underground Workaround Industry To Defeat It

China's New Youth Online Gaming Restrictions Birth Underground Workaround Industry To Defeat It

3 years ago
Anonymous $drS9DEX_Sj

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210908/10113447522/chinas-new-youth-online-gaming-restrictions-birth-underground-workaround-industry-to-defeat-it.shtml

It will not be controversial to say that China has always been one of the leaders in the war on the internet and culture alike. Between the Great Firewall of China at the macro level, the almost hilariously Orwellian tactics like forbidding certain karaoke songs, and the full destruction of democracy in Hong Kong, it's clear that Beijing values control over everything else.

But control isn't always so easy to implement. Take China's restrictive new regulation on online gaming among youths, for instance. These rules, implemented in order to combat "video game addiction" for minors, limit online gaming Friday through Sunday and on national holidays to 1 hour a day, 8pm to 9pm. This is achieved by forcing the gaming companies to implement a "real name" account policy. Gamers have to create an account utilizing their real names, which are checked for user age, in order to get into the online games.