Chinese government to step up regulations on "unhealthy" online usage

by Shawn Schuster Aug 29th 2008 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Business models, Culture, Economy

While we gamers tend to roll our collective eyes at reports of Internet addiction and crimes being committed in the name of our favorite hobby, the Chinese government sees things a bit differently. According to a top legislator, around four-million Chinese youngsters under the age of 18 are addicted to the Internet, mainly attracted by online gaming. They even go so far as to call online gaming unhealthy, as the government calls for stricter monitoring of online games that have illegal or inappropriate content.

This report labels this content as games with violence, pornography and those that feature Chinese soldiers as the enemy role. In addition to a 2006 law that ordered all Chinese Internet game manufacturers to install personal identification technology, they're now pushing technology to automatically log players off once they exceed a set number of continuous hours of gameplay.

Tags: china, chinese-gold-farmers, chinese-government, gold-farming, law, legislation

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Ghen said on 4:19PM 8-29-2008

Well that's going a bit far, but we are talking about China where the government is your mother and your father anyway.

possum said on 4:55PM 8-29-2008

Government regulation like this is sad, the people are like sheep since they sit back and take it. Parents, not the government are rsponsible for the childs welfare and useage of anything till they leave the nest, again i typed "parents" not people that have a child.

Then it is up to the individual to regulate themselves, if whatever addiction, be it games or whatever affects others or work then it can be dealt with there, the government need not apply.

Angel said on 5:55PM 8-29-2008

um, you are talking about the US and European "democratic" perspective... China is a communist dictatorship... your voiced opinion, though a good sheep like statement of issues in the west, does not apply in this case. a communist dictatorship states in its action that any citizen can only have the rights the government grants you... the reality is no person living under such a government actually has any rights.