Online gaming sector is thriving in China despite introducing anti-addiction rules: Report

Gaming sector revenue jumped 17.8 percent to CNY 22.2 billion (USD 3.5 billion) last month from a year earlier, data published by industry analyst Gamma Data showed yesterday. That was despite strict measures such as real-name authentication and facial-recognition restrictions, reports Yicai Global.

Data revealed Honor of Kings, a leading online game developed by Tencent Holdings, still had 165 million active players last month.

It is the same number of players as seen during the same period a year ago.

For China’s middle and primary schools, the winter holiday begins around Jan 20, 2022 and ends around Feb 20, and playing online games during this period has long been popular with younger players, the news portal reported.

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

“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 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.

Parents have a responsibility to pay attention to which accounts their children use to play online games, and they must be the last line of defense against addiction, Liao Xuhua, a senior entertainment sector analyst at Analysis, told Yicai Global.