PARENTS and experts on education and juvenile crime have hailed China’s newly introduced regulations targeting online gaming addiction among minors, urging their strict implementation.

Many parents have called for tightened measures to strictly conduct real-name verification of users and shorten time lengths of online gaming services available to minors, said the National Press and Publication Administration, the competent authority that issued the regulations.

Education and juvenile crime experts believe that apart from affecting academic and normal lives as well as the health of minors, online gaming addiction is also becoming a key factor leading to youth crime.

Li Xiaobo, a research fellow with a think tank affiliated with People’s Public Security University of China, noted that there are recurring cases in which some minors seeking to pay for online games resorted to theft or even robbery. Some even had psychological issues and became violent after playing online games for long hours.

“Be it from the perspective of youth crime prevention or the healthy growth of minors, the rules are praiseworthy and are something people have long been asking for,” Li said.

On microblogging platform Weibo, a hashtag on the tightened rules against online gaming addiction had generated more than 500 million views and over 60,000 posts within 24 hours since the issue of the regulations.

“Great! Minors have poor self-control and need guidance,” commented a user.

Xiong Bingqi, director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute in Beijing, attributed minors’ internet gaming addiction mainly to the high accessibility of online games, and the poor parental guidence in cultivating children’s hobbies and interests.

As strict scrutiny of the internet gaming providers is carried out, greater attention should also be paid to the role of parents as guardians, Xiong said. Children should have the company and guidance from parents when first using smartphones, and should be trained by the latter to identify harmful content online, he added.

After the announcement of the new rules, some online gaming companies have vowed to continue to improve services to better prevent minors’ addiction to internet games. China’s online gaming giant Tencent said that the company has developed and adopted several new technologies and functions for the protection of minors in recent years, and it will resolutely support, abide by, and proactively implement the new regulations.

(Xinhua)