There have been rounds of rumours for quite some time now, that the multi-player battle online game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), will be banned soon in various countries due to the extra engagement of children on the game. But there had been no confirmation on the same ever, from any of the governments.
But now there is bad news for the Chinese young video game players, as Tencent has imposed a digital lock on the games like Honour of Kings and PUBG Mobile, for the children of age below 13. The children of the same age group, now, will have to ask their guardians to open the lock in order to play the game.
The Chinese gaming giant Tencent announced the new curbs for the underage video-game players, following the Chinese internet governance requirements, to restrain the gaming addiction in youth. The company had already imposed the screen time limit and other rules in order to restrict children from spending more time on games. Now, Tencent plans to double down the rules in order to prevent minors from accessing some of its games in China, to prohibit things like violence, information about gambling or pornography, national politics, or another damaging behaviour for the minors.
The digital lock will be based on facial recognition and player ID checks, such that it will identify the age of the player and restrict the access. The company has set up the barriers, as the Chinese governments have raised concerns about addiction and myopia in children. The government is also worried about the worsening sightedness and poor optical heath among minors, due to their indulgence in long-hour gaming habits.
For now, the digital lock will only work in 12 cities in China. The cross-platform game PUBG has been most criticised for the increased addiction among the video game players. The game is one of the fastest growing video game that is available to play on PCs, Xbox, as well as smartphones. PUBG hosts 100 players during a single game in real-time, which has been the biggest factor in the popularity of the game.
Last year, too, the Chinese Government had imposed a nine-month freeze on new video games for the same reasons, that ended in December, itself.
Yashica is a Software Engineer turned Content Writer, who loves to write on social causes and expertise in writing technical stuff. She loves to watch movies and explore new places. She believes that you need to live once before you die. So experimenting with her life and career choices, she is trying to live her life to the fullest.