As part of its two-month campaign to clean up the ‘chaos’ around gaming and livestreaming, China is continuing to place restrictions on young people.
It appears the nation with the single largest gaming market, isn’t all that pleased with its accolade.
The growing list of internet restrictions within China could honestly do with its own A-Z at this stage. More than 8,000 websites are blocked throughout the country, including TikTok, Twitter Facebook, and YouTube.
It’s not just social media or e-commerce sites that bear the brunt of these constraints either. Chinese regulators have previously labelled games as ‘spiritual opium’ for young people, and have severely limited their use in lieu of combating gaming addiction.
There are stringent measures in place which prevent any games that aren’t deemed ‘good, clean, and secure’ from being sold, and even then players under the age of 18 are only permitted to play for three hours a week maximum – specifically, an hour a day on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
The central themes that continue to prevent games from being accepted are violence, same sex relationships, effeminacy (non-masculine behaviour), and money worship.
When it comes to networking services like WeChat, a youth curfew similarly suspends all service at 10pm. Facial recognition technology is widely implemented to ensure that these terms are enforced. Eerie, right?
Now, in its latest move to restrict gaming exposure, video content, and internet usage, which China’s administration claims is causing ‘chaos’ among young people, there are reports that livestreaming and video content is next in the firing line.