The Chinese government is easing the anti-addiction online game policy after an influx of complaints by online gamers. In October 2005("Are Online Gamers in China a League of Their Own?" October 4, 2005), the General Administration of Press and Publications in Beijing proposed a set of anti-addiction policies which place a five-hour consecutive playing time limit on gamers, minors and adults alike. Trespassers of the regulation will be penalized by losing their virtual weapons/points, or being automatically logged off. As a result, adult gamers protested with their virtual weapons – emails. On March 22, the agency announced a new system. Effective this June, adults are exempted from the time limit but gamers will have to enter authentic ID information in order to play online games. On one hand, the new system will grant access to parents to find out what games their children are playing and their online status. On the other hand, the public security department will authenticate the ID information and points will be voided if forgery is the case.
However, the policy may not have much teeth since registered gamers seldom use their real names and age. Consequently, it is still not clear how effective the authentication process will be. Also, granting access to parents may just spoil the fun of the massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG). More importantly, what kind of protection is in place to prevent an outbreak of identity theft?
Does such move indicate that the government is easing or losing control? Only time will tell whether it is one or the other, or both. But what is exciting to China is the growing of right consciousness among Chinese citizens and that their voices are being heard. Perhaps the Chinese government is finally letting the parents be the monitor of their children rather than it being a parent to its citizens.
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