This summer's "game restriction" rules have become stricter, and the total time that minors play online games in 62 days will not exceed 26 hours. A few days ago, a number of well-known game manufacturers issued a "notice on the limited play of summer games for minors", declaring that underage users can only log in to experience the game between 20 pm and 21 pm every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from July 1 to August 31, and the total time for each minor to play games during the entire summer vacation will be limited to 26 hours.
At the same time, in response to problems such as minors may fraudulently use adult accounts, many game manufacturers will also strengthen the use of face recognition verification for interception, and use artificial intelligence (AI) machine learning and other technical means to determine suspected underage accounts, and users who refuse or fail to pass the verification will be included in the anti-addiction supervision.
Minors who have completed the college entrance examination are also "limited to play"
NetEase Games' official Weibo recently issued an announcement that from July to August, underage players can experience the game from 20 to 21 every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Parents and friends can also view and manage their children's game situation in three steps through the "NetEase Parent Care Platform".
Tencent Games issued a notice on the restriction of minors during the summer vacation of 2023, which allows minors to play games for only one hour per week between 20:00 and 21:00 on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and the rest are prohibited periods. According to the official website of King Honor, combined with the Notice on Further Strict Management and Effectively Preventing Minors from Indulging in Online Games, during the summer vacation of 2023 (July 1 to August 31), the online games operated by Tencent Games in Chinese mainland are restricted to minors as follows: every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, minors can log in to the game between 20:00 and 21:00, and the rest of the time is a prohibited period.
The Mihayou Growth Care Platform also issued an announcement a few days ago that in order to actively respond to the "Notice on Further Strictly Managing and Effectively Preventing Minors from Indulging in Online Games" issued by the State Press and Publication Administration, combined with the summer vacation arrangement from July to August 2023, all online games operated by Mihayou Chinese mainland Company are limited to the game for minors as follows: From July to August 2023, minors can log in to the game every Friday, Saturday and Sunday between 20 and 21 o'clock. The rest of the time is a no-play period.
Why are the limited play times released by many well-known game manufacturers the same? It turned out that the State Press and Publication Administration had issued a notice in August 2021 to strictly limit the time for providing online game services to minors, and all online game enterprises can only provide 1 hour of service to minors from 20:00 to 21:00 every day on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and statutory holidays, and must not provide online game services to minors in any form at other times.
For the problem raised by many netizens that "after the college entrance examination, you will be anti-addiction", recently a game official also gave an official response, in short, as long as you are under the age of 18, even if you have completed the life exam, you will still be included in the scope of protection by the juvenile protection system, causing many underage high school graduates to "wail".
College entrance examination graduates under the age of 18 have encountered various "difficulties and dangers" when playing games, which precisely shows that after the issuance of the "Notice on Further Strictly Managing and Effectively Preventing Minors from Indulging in Online Games", with the joint efforts of competent departments, game manufacturers, schools, parents, society and other parties, great progress has been made in preventing game addiction, and the problem of addiction has been further solidly solved.
Addiction to online games is associated with the family environment
The summer game restrictions for minors introduced by game manufacturers reduce the possibility of addiction by reducing game time, which is reasonable, but it is still ineffective in adapting to the characteristics of adolescent physical and mental development, balancing the relationship between control and freedom, and avoiding addiction.
On the one hand, despite the use of advanced technologies such as account verification and facial recognition, minors may still try to use other people's accounts, digital tools such as virtual private networks (VPNs) and other means to bypass the verification system in order to gain more game time.
On the other hand, limiting game time does not teach minors how to play online games reasonably. They need comprehensive education and guidance to help them understand the positive and negative effects of games, develop self-control, and develop other beneficial interests and skills.
Some insiders said that minors' addiction to online games is also closely related to the family environment. If parents are unaware of the seriousness of the problem, or lack supervision and guidance on their child's gaming behavior and proper parent-child relationship, children may not comply with the restrictions even with time limits and account verification. At the same time, in addition to limiting playtime, families and society need to provide alternative options for minors, such as other types of healthy recreational activities.
In the two years since the implementation of the "new anti-addiction regulations", the protection of minors in the game industry has made great progress, the Game Working Committee pointed out in the "2022 China Game Industry Protection Progress Report" that "the problem of minors' addiction to games has been basically solved", under the new policy, the game anti-addiction system has successfully covered more than ninety percent of minor players, and more than 76% of minor players have encountered face recognition verification. The proportion of minors with less than 3 hours of play time per week has increased to more than 75%.
"Limited time" is not enough
With the full penetration of digital technology into social life, online games have gradually become an important way for people to have entertainment. In the summer vacation, when there is relatively ample time, large-scale online games such as "Honor of Kings" and "Peace Elite" are warmly sought after by the majority of teenagers. But overindulgence in gaming can have negative effects. In response to this problem, many game manufacturers have taken a series of governance actions in recent years and made full use of new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.
For example, NetEase Games dispatched 24-hour AI patrolmen to supervise the whole process to protect everyone's scientific and safe games. In addition, in addition to face recognition verification, many game manufacturers can also comprehensively use a variety of verification methods, such as voiceprint recognition, fingerprint recognition, etc., to improve the accuracy and reliability of verification; Continuously improve AI machine learning algorithms to reduce the possibility of misjudgment and missed judgments, and improve the effectiveness of anti-addiction supervision.
However, from the perspective of governance efficiency, there is still room for further improvement and improvement of the current governance measures focusing on "limited time limit". In the past two years, strict anti-addiction measures have largely changed the gaming behavior of minors, and the industry has gradually begun to gradually shift from the previous technical containment to the development of diversified solutions for channeling, allowing minors to see a wider world beyond mobile phones.
In the future, with the continuous changes in the online environment, the protection of minors will also face new challenges. Although the anti-addiction work of the game has been basically solved, it does not mean a total victory. The protection of minors is a long-term project, which requires the whole society to form a joint force to provide a clean cyberspace for minors.
Written by: New Express News reporter Chen Xuedong
Supported by: Guangzhou Tianhe District Software and Information Industry Association