Announcement on Anti-addiction System for Minors in Online Games

From TapTap Developer Service

Published by National Press and Publication Administration

This is a repost from ‘Announcement on Anti-addiction System for Minors in Online Games by National Press and Publication Administration’. The full content is as the following:

Press and Publication Administrations of all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities; all online game companies, and relevant organizations in the industry:

In recent years, while the online game industry satisfies the leisure and entertainment needs and enriches the cultural life of the people, issues of great concern have also emerged, especially such phenomena as minors’ addiction to online games and excessive spending. It harms their physical and mental health, as well as their normal study and life, which has caused strong concern in society. To best protect the youth's interests and to guide the online gaming industry to a more prosperous and orderly growth, measures need to be taken to protect the youth's physical and mental development. That is, to regulate online gaming service, to guiding online gaming companies to prioritize society's benefits, to effectively prevent and modify minors’ online game addiction and excessive spending.

The relevant matters are hereby notified as follows.

All the online game players will be required to use their valid identity information to register for an account. From the day this announcement becomes effective, online gaming companies should establish and employ an identification system and they must not provide service to new users who have not registered with their real name.

Within 2 months from this announcement becomes effective, all online gaming companies must require their users to complete the real-name registration, and they must stop providing service to users who have not. The identification information that users provided for registration must be properly stored and protected by the online gaming companies in strict accordance with relevant laws and regulations, and must not be used for other purposes.

Online gaming companies are allowed to offer a guest experience of less than 1 hour for the players. Users do not need to register with their real name under the guest mode, but they will also not be able to make in-app purchases or any kind of spending. For users of the same device, online gaming companies must not provide the guest experience again within 15 days.

From 22:00 to 8:00 the next day, online gaming companies must not provide gaming services to minors in any form. The length of time that online gaming companies may provide gaming services to minors must not exceed 3 hours per day during legal holidays, and shall not exceed 1.5 hours per day at other times.

Online gaming companies should take effective actions to restrict minors from using paid services that are inconsistent with their civil capacity. They must not provide paid services for users under the age of 8. In the case of the paid gaming service by the same online gaming company, for users over the age of 8 but under the age of 16, the single in-app charge cannot exceed 50 CNY, and the total amount of in-app charges cannot exceed 200 CNY; for users over the age of 16 but under the age of 18, the single in-app charge cannot exceed 100 CNY, and the total amount of in-app charges cannot exceed 400 CNY.

All the requirements in this announcement are all necessary conditions for the publishing and operation of online games. Local publication administrations should fulfill their responsibilities to supervise and monitor online gaming companies and their online game services in strict accordance with the requirements of this announcement.

For companies that fail to fulfill the requirements in this announcement, local publication administrations should order them to correct in a limited time. For serious circumstances, such companies should be dealt with following the law which can lead to their license being suspended. Local publication administrations should coordinate with law enforcement agencies to carry out supervision and regulation.

Online gaming companies should determine the proper reminder for different ages of the players based on the content of the game, acceptability of certain features, the intensity of confrontation, degree of cognitive confusion, risk of imitations, needs of purchase and other factors of different aspects. The reminders should be highlighted on the page for download, registration, and login. Relevant organizations in the industry should work on the detailed standards and specifications for the age-sensitive reminder, and urge online gaming companies to implement the age-sensitive reminder system. Online gaming companies should study the cause of minors' game addiction, and immediately modify the contents, features, or rules in the game that can be the cause.

VI. It is necessary to guide parents, schools, and other parties of the society to fulfill their responsibility of guardianship and protection of minors. It is also necessary to guide the minors to the healthy and reasonable use of online games and to help minors to form correct concepts and appropriate behaviors about spending in online games.

VII. The minors mentioned refer to the citizens under the age of 18, and the online gaming companies refer to all the platforms that provide online gaming services.

This Announcement will be effective from November 1st, 2019.

National Press and Publication Administration

2019-10-25