China’s Ministry Of Education Says They Are Regulating Minor’s Time Amount Playing Video Games
League of Legends is attempting to turn down the alleged gaming addiction in consumers. Tencent, an international investment conglomerate company, and Riot Games, the team that brought you League of Legends, are teaming up to help the addiction. According to Polygon, the new League of Legends system will attempt to curb addiction by putting minors off of the game if they’ve played for over two hours a day.
It’s unknown whether or not China will be the first and only nation to do this, because China is one of the only countries that uses national IDs numbers in order for the player to make an account, meaning the government knows how old you are compared to other country’s systems.
According to LA Times, China also plans to regulate games like World of Warcraft and Fortnite for minors as well.
Back in May, the World Health Organization released a study that concluded video game addiction is an actual mental health disorder. China has tightened their laws with video games, and cracking down on the minors that spend too much time playing a certain game.
“The problem with gaming and other…new media is that they produce a different culture,” says mental health contractor Michelle Carras, who also believes herself to be a gamer, according to TIME Magazine. “But clinicians are approaching this behavior from an understanding of a disorder based on a continuum of normative, recreational and problematic use rather than from the setting or context of a unique, new culture.”
The Chinese Ministry of Education is creating restrictions for a bulk of their minors surrounding video games, according to the statement they released. LA Times reported that the statement said it could limit the amount of time minors play online games and limit the amount of games as well. The Ministry of Education says that these changes are coming as a precaution before the federal government takes action.