Tencent, China’s biggest gaming provider is now limiting time for minors under 12. This came off the back of an article by the state media, calling games “Spiritual Opium”. As a result, Tencent’s stock dropped about 11% in no time. This piece was written in the Economic Information Daily. Affiliated with China’s Xinhua News Agency, it ultimately led to some serious changes by the gaming titan. Tencent will be banning children under the age of 12 from making in-game purchases. In addition, minors and children under the age of 12 will also have their in-game time limited. This is off the back of another move in China that introduced a video game curfew for minors.

We aren’t arguing at all that gaming addiction is a serious issue. There have been some alarming acts committed under the guise of addiction. This is still a pretty major change in the policy made by Tencent for gaming for minors. The Economic Information Daily named Tencent’s Honor of Kings as one of the games that children in China were addicted to. They went on to say that children are playing it up to 8 hours a day, but the article was removed later that day.

Kenny Wen, a Wealth Management Strategist at Everbvright Sun Hung Kai expressed some concern:

“Obviously there’s great concern over policy uncertainty because this is not just about online education, there was also talk about data security and now, about mobile games.”

Mobile gaming (and gaming in general) is a multi-billion dollar industry, and if children are left unchecked, they can quickly become addicts, they seem to say. Now, this is certainly true. But it’s also up to parents and the children’s loved ones to help keep them from becoming addicted to online games. As a result of this outcry, Tencent said they will limit gaming time for minors to one hour a day, and two hours a day during holidays. As previously stated, Children under 12 cannot make purchases in-game either. That’s something that probably should not have been permissible without parental permission.

China’s been working hard to make sure gaming is done less by minors, and the current critique is harming the Chinese gaming industry. NetEase, Tencent, and others are likely seeing quite a bit of selling of stock, thanks to this sort of change in China. The future is most definitely not certain for gaming in China right now. This is worrisome considering how much money there is in Esports in China. There’s no telling if it will actually harm the Chinese esports industry. 

Calling gaming “spiritual opium” that could destroy a generation seems to be a little bit of a stretch. For now, though, thanks to Tencent minors in China look to be able to spend significantly less time playing in the gaming space. Hopefully, there is some change, but it’s not looking likely.