According to Tencent, it has now imposed a digital lock on some of its games. So with these locks in place, players under 13 years of age will have to ask their guardians to open the game for them. We should say that this should definitely prove to be effective as it will give parents some level of control over the kind of time their child is spending playing video games. The digital lock will first be enabled on the Chinese versions of Honor of Kings and PUBG Mobile, both of which are extremely popular games and have scores of fans across the globe.
We should mention that the government in China had last year announced some new controls on the number of games that can be played on the internet and has imposed a limit on the number of new releases. It had also come up with rules for underage players in order to decrease their screen time. Right after President Xi Jinping called everyone in the country to pay more attention to optical health, the Chinese government had said that the curbs that they have imposed are justified as they are a way to stop the worsening near-sightedness among minors. Tencent has already launched a real-name identification system for its game Honour of Kings in order to impose restrictions on playtime for youths. We should also add that it is not only in China that the company is facing flak for its games being too addictive. There are many in India who want a ban imposed on PUBG Mobile too. The Gujarat government has told all the primary schools in the state to ban the game within school premises. There is a student body in Jammu and Kashmir that wants a ban on PUBG Mobile because they say the game contributed to their poor results in examinations. There are also people who want a nation-wide ban imposed on the popular game for being too addictive.
