Beginning August 1, online game operators in China will be forced to take a series of steps to protect online gamers under the age of 18 from inappropriate content and selling or buying items using virtual currency.
According to the Xinhua News Agency, online games created for minors will have to lose any content that would lead to “imitation of behavior that violates social morals and the law.” The regulations deal with content that is horrifying, cruel or otherwise unwholesome, specifically any portrayals of “pornography, cults, superstitions, gambling and violence.”
The virtual currency ban was said to be made possible by a new rule that online game players must register game accounts using their real name.
Gaming operators were also told to “develop techniques that would limit the gaming time of minors in order to prevent addiction, though without specifying what kinds of techniques and a permissible gaming time.”
Bloomberg reported that shares in Tencent Holdings Ltd., described as China’s largest Internet company in terms of market value, and a “leading provider of virtual currency services,” saw its shares fall as much as 5.3 percent after the new regulations were announced.
Connect with us:
China Moves to Protect Young Online Gamers
June 22, 2010
Shout box
DorthLous: Passed 1.5M$. And I'd also say that Brutal Legend is far from being a bad game. I just think it was a few levels under what people expected from the people working on the project.02/11/2012 - 8:25am
|
Technogeek: Brutal Legend wasn't bad so much as "marketing had no idea how the game actually played", causing it to suffer accordingly.02/10/2012 - 10:38pm
|
RedMage: It looks the CIA's website has been DDOS'ed. Anon?02/10/2012 - 7:52pm
|
RedMage: Brutal Legend.02/10/2012 - 7:52pm
|
ddrfr33k: Has anything Tim Schafer ever made been of crap caliber? I'm struggling to think of one...02/10/2012 - 7:37pm
|
Guamish: I think it is in good hands. Tim did a game for the GDC award show and that was fun for how short it was.02/10/2012 - 12:22pm
|
Andrew Eisen: It'll be tragic if the game ultimately sucks.02/10/2012 - 12:17pm
|
james_fudge: $1.3 million02/10/2012 - 11:32am
|
Uncharted NES: Germany Says It Won't Sign ACTA [Update: ... Yet]- http://tinyurl.com/7r2twrg02/10/2012 - 11:21am
|
Andrew Eisen: Damn. Double Fine's Kickstarter fund has already passed a million dollars.02/09/2012 - 8:16pm
|
Andrew Eisen: Audrey didn't quote the sassy parts. Here's IGN's article: http://wii.ign.com/articles/121/1218359p1.html And here's my original post: http://tinyurl.com/7y68a3902/09/2012 - 7:50pm
|
james_fudge: I hope you some said something sassy! Where's the link?02/09/2012 - 7:46pm
|
Andrew Eisen: Hey, neat. IGN quoted a blog I had writen only two hours earlier. I certainly timed that one pretty well.02/09/2012 - 7:38pm
|
Andrew Eisen: Toki Tori has been added to the Humble Bundle for Android.02/09/2012 - 5:11pm
|
james_fudge: Thanks for the heads-up DorthLous02/09/2012 - 4:33pm
|
DorthLous: Will do, my apologies.02/09/2012 - 4:14pm
|
Andrew Eisen: I appreciate the heads up but please keep typo alerts to the specific article's comments or PMs.02/09/2012 - 3:33pm
|
DorthLous: The title says 30, but in the article, the developer says it's like a 20% net tax http://www.gamepolitics.com/2012/02/09/developers-call-facebook-currency-transaction-fee-thirty-percent-tax02/09/2012 - 2:43pm
|
Uncharted NES: If they actually release Final Fantasy XI for PlayStation Vita, then I will consider buying one.02/09/2012 - 12:13pm
|
Uncharted NES: Customers Petition Apple to End Worker Abuse with 250,000 signatures- http://tinyurl.com/6vpuom202/09/2012 - 11:28am
|
Comments
Re: China Moves to Protect Young Online Gamers
All this protect the children stuff is mindboggeling. I mean what exactly do children need to be protected from when it comes to video games?
Video games don't sexually molest or violently harass children nor do they cause them to enter an altered or trans like state like alcohol and drugs can do causing them to commit actions which they wouldn't otherwise do in their normal state of mind.
It seems to me to be nothing more then an indirect form of state-based thought and mind control. The nanny-state doesn't like the ideas and messages presented in the games so they want to restrict access to them. Of course this is China which has no Freedom of Speech or Expression so I guess my point is moot.
"No law means no law" - Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black on the First Amendment
Re: China Moves to Protect Young Online Gamers
When I imported Siren from Hong Kong it came with a BIG sticker on it saying "18 and over don't play infront of, sell, lend, hire etc this game to anyone under the age of 18."
Re: China Moves to Protect Young Online Gamers
...specifically any portrayals of “pornography, cults, superstitions, gambling and violence.”
So, for game content for minors, they just banned... everything?
Re: China Moves to Protect Young Online Gamers
Since if you look hard enough you can fidn that in, anything, seems like it.