Game Anti-Addiction: Creating a Chinese Experience

At the recently concluded China Game Industry Annual Conference, the Game Working Committee released the "Report on the Protection of Minors in the Chinese Game Industry 2024" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"). The data indicates that in 2024, the proportion of minors whose weekly game time is controlled within 3 hours has increased by 37.2 percentage points, reaching 75.1%. From the perspective of public opinion, the search volume of keywords such as "anti-addiction", "minor game time limit", and "minor refund" has decreased significantly. The average value in November this year has decreased by 94%, 97%, and 50% respectively compared to the first month. From this, it seems that the topic of anti-addiction in domestic games has become an "outdated internet celebrity".

In some overseas countries, they have finally begun to follow China's footsteps in the field of anti-addiction. Recently, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stated that the Australian government will promote legislation to prohibit minors under the age of 16 from using social networks, even with parental permission. Once this law takes effect, social media platforms such as X, Facebook, Ins, and YouTube will be affected. According to Australian regulations, PlayStation Network and Xbox Live also meet the prohibition criteria and may also face stricter supervision and prohibition. 

As soon as the news came out, many online comments believed that the Australian government was "copying China's homework". But a careful comparison can still reveal differences. Australia has only copied the "strict" standard, but the simple and rough one-size-fits-all management still fails to learn the essence of China. 

The system for protecting minors in games established by China is a global benchmark.

The Most Stringent Policy Has Been in Place for Three Years with Remarkable Effects

The introduction of the most stringent anti-addiction policy in history in 2021 can be regarded as a milestone moment. 

According to the regulations, online game enterprises need to strictly implement the real-name system and only provide minors with 1 hour of online game services from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. every Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and legal holidays. After three years of implementation, the results have been remarkable. 

After the policy was introduced, the leading game platforms voluntarily increased their efforts according to the top-level requirements. In recent years, the number of minor game users, game time, and spending have shown a comprehensive downward trend. Tencent's financial report data shows that in the first quarter of 2023, the proportion of minors in game time and revenue was only 0.4% and 0.7%, respectively, a significant decrease of 96% and 90% compared to the same period in 2020. According to the "Report" survey, the cumulative proportion of surveyed students who almost never pay or recharge less than 30 yuan per month exceeds 80%. 

In the choices of minors for surfing and relaxing on the Internet, games rank after watching videos and listening to music. The decline in a series of key data indicators proves that in the past three years, China has had clear and operational specific norms in time management, permission management, consumption management, and responsibility management in preventing minors from being addicted to online games. The "strictest policy" is not just talk, but has really been implemented in daily life. 

As early as 2021, when Tencent just launched the facial recognition "Zero Cruise" function, Wang Gaofei, the CEO of Weibo with the username Laiquzhijian, once "complained" about the strict anti-addiction management: "After it was launched, Han Ge was kicked out after playing for 10 minutes. He makes me complain to Tencent every day, and I can't get any peace..." Han Ge is his son in primary school. Although expressed in a "complaining" way, it fully shows the effectiveness of China's management in preventing minors from being addicted to games. 

To explore how to truly achieve anti-addiction in practice, we need to further ask what we are talking about when we talk about the protection of minors? 

In essence, whether it is to prevent addiction to online games or to prevent addiction to any other behavior, it is to protect the healthy development of minors in a special psychological and physiological stage. In the growth process of minors, they will experience many things and also face various temptations. Everything has its two sides. Take online games as an example. This is one of the extremely important spiritual consumer goods in contemporary society, which can play a role in improving intelligence, transmitting culture and values in the growth process of minors. Just like the highly popular "Black Myth: Wukong" some time ago, it directly made Shanxi's cultural tourism popular and spread the aesthetics of ancient architecture. 

As mentioned in the "Report", the Internet has played an important role in helping minors learn and relax and entertain. The questionnaire survey of parents also shows that parents recognize that children have a certain need for entertainment, and appropriate Internet access and games can meet the demands of children. 

Therefore, when we talk about preventing minors from being addicted to online games, the key is to master the "degree" issue. Moderate games are beneficial for intelligence, and only excessive addiction is harmful. Preventing minors from being addicted to online games is not to completely cut minors off from electronic games, but to clearly mark the bottom line and help minors whose self-control is still developing to grasp the "degree" through the efforts of all sectors of society. 

Anti-addiction is only one aspect of the protection of minors, and more importantly, it is to allow minors to grow up healthily and happily.

The Current Situation of Anti-Addiction in Overseas Countries

When we look globally, we find that although anti-addiction measures in overseas countries were implemented earlier, more of them are only policies with little significant effect. 

Let's first sort out the measures of various countries. 

Earlier, South Korea was the first country in the world to have a game curfew. It introduced a policy called the "Cinderella Law", which prohibited game companies from providing online game services to minors from 12 a.m. to 6 a.m. However, this policy was abolished in 2021 and replaced by the "Game Time Choice System". Japan is more lenient, only making an appeal for the time limit for minors to play games, without substantive management. 

The measures in the United States are based on a classification system, aiming to limit minors' easy access to bloody and violent content. The game classification system is implemented in many countries around the world, including the United States, Canada, and Mexico in North America, and the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, and other 31 countries in Europe, as well as Israel and South Africa. 

But looking back, the anti-addiction management in overseas countries either directly prohibits minors from playing games or sets a not very binding rule, and there is no more systematic management, and most of them have become empty talk. 

In the United States, teenagers can easily buy games that are beyond their age. According to data from the American Business Association, children have a 20% chance of successfully purchasing adult games. Even in 2005, the United States overturned the decree that "selling violent games to minors is prohibited, and offenders will be fined $1,000". When the bottom line requirement is broken, don't expect the classification system to have any binding force. 

In South Korea, after the implementation of the "Cinderella Law", the daily game time of teenagers only decreased by about 16 to 20 minutes, and the late-night game time decreased by only 4.5%, which is almost ineffective. As for Australia's one-size-fits-all prohibition policy, it remains to be seen how much it can be effectively implemented. 

On foreign networks, parents often complain about how helpless and frustrated they are in the face of children addicted to the Internet. Many parents in various countries directly express their envy of China. Japanese netizens said: "Seeing Japanese young people lose their motivation due to games, I am very envious of China that can take this measure (the strictest anti-addiction)." Some American netizens lamented, "Nearly half of American children aged 5 - 11 are overweight. Instead of blaming the fast food industry, it is better to look at China, which has banned games and promotes 2 hours of sports every day." 

What is the reason? Due to national conditions, European and American countries mostly use minimum legislation to clarify the basic principles and bottom line of minors' network protection, and impose penalties on behaviors that endanger minors' network security. On this basis, non-mandatory constraints are carried out through a combination of institutional supervision and industry self-discipline. As a result, many measures are ineffective. 

The protection of minors' network is a systematic project. With the guidance of the superstructure, parents need to supervise, and there must also be someone to supervise and help parents, and enterprises also need to find solutions. The energy of all parties must form a network.

Why Can China Lead?

Although overseas countries took action earlier, only China has formed a more complete minor protection policy, implementing relevant measures in multiple aspects such as information protection, anti-addiction, and game classification. The policy completeness is already at the forefront of the world. Policies are the rule-makers, and enterprises are the specific implementers. Chinese game enterprises, starting from the problem awareness, have explored a set of effective methods through real-name authentication, consumption restriction, time control, facial recognition, and other methods to address the pain points in the network protection of minors. 

The "Report" not only shows the achievements of China's game protection for minors, but also frankly indicates that there are still pain points.  

For example, among minors who play games beyond the time limit, 69.2% will use the identity information of their parents or elders to bypass the anti-addiction restrictions. In addition, parents are the first responsible persons for protecting their children, but there are still many difficulties in supervising their children's game process. The "Report" data shows that 50.67% of parents are worried that overly strict control will intensify conflicts, and 35.28% of parents complain that their children do not obey discipline. Some dare not manage, and some cannot manage. At this time, it is necessary for game developers, channels, advertising platforms, and other parties to jointly help parents share the burden. 

To solve such "loophole-exploiting" problems, some technical means must be used. Tencent Games is the first game manufacturer to apply facial recognition technology to game anti-addiction. It began exploring this technology as early as 2018. In 2024, Tencent Games upgraded the "Anti-Addiction Four-Piece Set" management tool and launched protective measures such as "Summer Facial Recognition Cruise", "Anti-Fraud Facial Recognition Inspection", and Facial Recognition "Bomb Lock" to specifically address issues such as account misappropriation and lending. 

Of course, to completely solve the problem, we must start from the overall situation and let children find more fun in the world outside the game. Let them truly experience a real and diverse life in real life and social interaction. This is also a measure to solve game addiction from the root and achieve the protection of minors. The core of management is to guide and educate children and provide solutions to truly bring them into real life, whether it is to participate in sports or to explore the great outdoors. When children feel the beauty and joy of real interpersonal relationships and the outside world, they will not be addicted to the virtual online world. 

For this reason, Tencent has launched the "Intelligence and Physical Fitness Double Hundred" plan to build classrooms and sports fields for children and support science and technology and sports courses. Enrich the lives of minors, use games to help minors grow, and provide a healthy and happy growth environment for them. 

According to the data released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) and the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, as of the end of December 2023, the number of minor Internet users in China has increased to 196 million, and the Internet penetration rate of minors has reached 97.3%. China has the largest group of minor Internet users in the world. 

The protection of minors has no end and is always on the way, and China has already led the world to take an effective path.