Protecting juveniles from online game addiction

Editor's note: The following are excerpts from the report on legislation and policies to protect Chinese juvenile internet users, which was published by Beijing Children's Legal Aid and Research Center on Aug 20.

A China Youth Association for Network Development survey on juvenile internet addiction showed 14.1 percent of underage netizens were addicted to the internet. The World Health Organization recognized gaming disorder as a mental health condition in the 11th version of the International Classification of Diseases in May.

Addiction to online games could compromise the physical and mental health of juveniles, affect their academic performance, cripple their ability to adapt to the real world and make them susceptible to committing crimes. Since 2017, several ministries including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Education have taken a number of measures to keep juveniles away from online games, such as real name registration to access online games and limited playing time. But some problems remain. For example, online game makers have set a limit for playing time for juveniles, yet underage netizens can easily shift from one platform to another and continue playing.