CHINA / Foreign Media on China
China forced to rethink online gaming limit
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-03-22 14:19
Protests from players of Chinese Internet role-playing games have forced
Beijing to rethink plans to introduce an anti-addiction system that would
limit the time players spend in online fantasy worlds, according to a
report in the Financial Times.
Seven months after the announcement of the anti-addiction system, it is
still only being tested on a small number of servers operated by big
games companies.
The difficulties surrounding the anti-addiction system, drawn up after
youth groups and newspapers blamed multi-player games for encouraging
sloth, truancy and even murder, highlight the challenges Beijing faces in
imposing its will on a rapidly expanding Internet sector.
It also suggests the effort could have less impact than expected on
leading US-listed Chinese Internet companies such as Shanda Interactive
Games Ltd., NetEase.com Inc. and Sohu.com
From June, online gamers would have to enter authentic identity
information to play games, enabling parents to check their children's
online gaming history, according to a report in The Beijing Daily
Messenger, cited by the Xinhua news agency.
Company executives said it would be difficult to limit the anti-addiction
system to players aged under-18, since few people signed up to play the
games using their real names and ages.
The Financial Times quoted Zhou Donglei, director of business development
and investor relations at Nasdaq-listed Shanda Interactive, as saying the
government had "backed off" after fierce complaints from players.
"say, 'It's my right, I can decide what I want to do with my free time,
whether I want to watch TV, or play mahjong, or drink, or play games',"
she said. "There's really not much the government can do."
Statistics from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC)
show China had 111 million Internet users at the end of last year,
including more than 20 million online game players, according to the
Beijing Daily Messenger report.
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