No matter your age or where you live, if you have access to technology, you have access to video games. A classic, exciting, fun, and sometimes educational way to pass the time for most. But as of August 2021, Beijing, China placed a restriction on how many hours minors could spend on video games a week. The restriction was made to strengthen the younger population’s mental and physical health and to combat video game addiction. It was also a tactical move by China to enforce rules that were previously too loose or freeing. In 2019, China imposed a law in which minors could play video games for one-and-a-half hours a day and 3 hours on certain holidays. The new official regulation limits minors to 3hours of video games a week from 8pm to 9pm on the weekend.
Video game companies have been forced to deny minors in China the ability to play more than 3 hours, and have set in place a real name verification process for monitoring. As a result, these companies have lost money due to the new restriction and do not support the idea of limiting hours spent on video games. However, parents and teachers had unitedly advocated for the restrictions. They mentioned that if minors decide that they want to pursue a career in video games, then they can make that decision after they turn 18.