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       China Unveils New Limits on Online Video Games

       By John Liu

       Reporting from Seoul

       Dec. 22, 2023, 4:00 a.m. ET

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       The Latest Chinese regulators announced new restrictions Friday on online video games, which they said were aimed at tightening the management of the industry and protecting the country’s minors.

       The proposed rules, which are subject to public comment before being made final, are the latest in several rounds of curbs on the industry over the last few years. The plan would call for users to have spending limits on the game platforms and would prohibit minors from tipping videogame live streamers.

       The draft rules, issued by the National Press and Publication Administration, would also try to lessen the incentives for players to keep coming back by banning game companies from offering rewards for daily logins. Additionally, the rules would require computer servers and other equipment used by game companies to be located within China, and would stipulate that the content of games must not contain state secrets or endanger national security.

       Image

       A video gaming center in Shanghai in 2021. Credit...Alex Plavevski/EPA, via Shutterstock

       The Context: The campaign started by cracking down on time spent gaming. As early as 2019, the Chinese authorities took aim at what they deemed was a problem of online game addiction among minors, setting daily time limits on gamers under 18. Those restrictions have since been tightened. Four months ago, regulators proposed rules that would require a “minor mode” on mobile devices to cap screen time and restrict the content for schoolchildren.

       The government has waged a wider war on the tech industry in the last few years, seeking to rein in e-commerce, financial technology and ride-hailing businesses that it decided had become too powerful. As a result, companies that were once as large as their U.S. counterparts collectively lost trillions of dollars in market value.

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       John Liu covers China and technology for The Times, focusing primarily on the interplay between politics and technology supply chains. He is based in Seoul. More about John Liu

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