China Further Cracks Down On Streaming With A Curfew And No-Tipping Rules

China is continuing its fight against the ‘plague’ that is gaming. Previously, the Chinese government set about enacting a series of rules and regulations for gamers to follow, and they don’t seem to be slowing down any time soon. The belief is that gaming is an addiction, and detrimental to people’s physical and mental health.

To curb this ‘addiction,’ under 18s are now limited to just three hours of gaming a day and all gamers have to be registered using their legal name. Tech giant Tencent has even introduced facial recognition to gaming to help track activity. In recent weeks, curbs were extended over into streaming and those curbs are set to expand further with two new rules due to come into force.

Speaking of streaming, take a look at some of our favourite Twitch wins and fails below.

Previously, the government banned the streaming of all unauthorised titles in China, which included major releases like Elden Ring. Now, a curfew is being introduced so that under 16s are not permitted to watch streams after 10pm whilst tipping during streams has been banned altogether for minors.

China had already banned under 16s from gaming after 10pm, so the streaming element acts as an extension of this curfew. The rules are decided by China’s State Administration of Radio and Television.

Some of China’s young people have previously found ways around the bans. One method is via renting or purchasing adult age-rated gaming accounts online, allowing young people to play beyond their allotted curfew. This has caught the attention of officials though, hence prompting the expansion of facial recognition usage.

Brought about by the onset of the pandemic, streaming has really taken off in recent years in China. With many streamers now set to lose a huge chunk of their audience, it awaits to be seen how the streaming sector will react to the rules.