The China Game Restriction that limits underaged players’ playtime to just two hours on weekends has already been addressed. Chinese e-commerce sites have found a way to circumvent these restrictions, allowing youngsters to get over the regulations. Last week, Chinese regulators started implementing a new rule that says players under the age of 18 can no longer play video games for more than two hours on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. To comply with this new regulation, leading Chinese game publisher Tencent implemented two tools. The first tool is a real-name registration tool and ID Number registration that can verify the players’ age. The second tool, released earlier this summer, is dubbed ‘Midnight Patrol’, which uses face recognition. Both tools are meant to dissuade minors from playing video games during restricted hours. However, Chinese e-commerce sites have already found a way to go around (and make a profit out of) the China Game Restriction regulations. These websites have started renting out game accounts registered to adults for young ones to use. The game account rental service costs about $5 for two hours of use. Chinese government paper People’s Daily reports that Tencent has already sued over twenty companies for renting out game accounts for their top title – Honor of Kings. These e-commerce sites may seem crafty and sly with their solution, but the regulation itself isn’t very hard to circumvent in the first place. Parents can lend their game accounts to their children with no repercussions, after all.
