Despite tough rules, China's online gaming thriving among underage players

According to data published by industry analyst Gamma Data on Thursday, gaming sector revenue jumped 17.8 per cent to USD 3.5 billion last month from a year earlier, reported Liu Xiaojie, a senior entertainment sector analyst, writing in Yicai Global.

Honour of Kings, a leading online game developed by Tencent Holdings, still had 165 million active players last month, almost the same as a year ago, per the data.

The increase was despite strict measures such as real-name authentication and facial recognition restrictions.

The National Press and Publication Administration brought in new rules last August amid concerns over increasing game addiction among minors.

At the time, game developers said the rules were "the toughest ever," as they required online game operators to curb minors' playing time and enforce that through measures such as real-name authentication, reported Yicai Global.

For China's middle and primary schools, the winter holiday begins around January 20, 2022, and ends around February 20, and playing online games during this period has long been popular with younger players, said Liu.

The underage is now only allowed to play online games for one hour daily in 14 days of the month-long winter holiday, according to the 2022 winter vacation online games calendar from major Chinese game developers such as Tencent and NetEase.

But minors have still managed to find loopholes in the rules to play online games for a longer time, Yicai Global learned in interviews.

"My classmates all use their parent's personal information to log into the gaming platforms, enabling them to play without time restrictions," one junior school student told Yicai Global.

Some game vendors have enforced facial recognition as an added verification layer to stop restrictions from being bypassed, but minors have found ways to get around this. Information about "how to bypass facial recognition," or "how to avoid anti-addiction restrictions" is widely available online, Yicai Global found. (ANI)