China announces it has "resolved" gaming addiction in children

For basically as long as they’ve been around, games have been the source of concern and outrage amongst protective parents and some media outlets - there’s the age old myth of them making youngsters more violent, for example. In reality, of course, you really can’t blame video games for something like that.

More recently though, there’s been more and more discussion about how much gaming is too much. You can definitely get too much of a good thing - if gaming is interfering with your life in ways that stop you from looking after yourself, for example, that’s far from ideal.

Check out this awesome restoration of an OG Xbox 360 console!

Now though, as reported by Kotaku, China’s Game Publishers Association Publications Committee (GPC for short) now claims that it may have “resolved” gaming addiction in minors. Since last August, the country has had strict regulations in place to cut down on the amount of time that young people spend playing video games - a curfew was introduced, for example, which aimed to limit kids from gaming for more than an hour on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

According to the GPC’s data, it seems that this may have worked. Apparently, 75% of minors played video games for less than three hours a week. A number of Chinese game companies, including Tencent, were praised for the “remarkable results” achieved through the systems they introduced to help reduce kids’ screen time (thanks, Reuters).

Kotaku writes that the GPC’s report seems to indicate that some of China’s gaming-related restrictions may be lifted, although there’s no definite word on that at the time of writing. Even if not, though, some children have reportedly already been utilising loopholes to work around certain regulations, with some apparently buying and renting accounts in order to spend more time on games. It’s not known if the GPC’s new figures take this into account.