Game plan urgent to stop addiction

TENCENT GAMES announced on Sunday it is piloting a system for its hit mobile game King of Glory that will log out players under the age of 12 if they have played the game for more than a hour in a day. Beijing Youth Daily commented on Monday:

Tencent's mobile game King of Glory is enjoying phenomenal popularity with over 200 million registered players, 36 million of whom are middle and primary school students. With an estimated quarterly revenue of over 12 billion yuan ($1.8 billion), it became the world's most lucrative mobile game in the first quarter of this year, according to reports.

But in the eyes of some teachers and parents, it is no more than a gateway for kids to spend more time in the virtual world during the summer vacation.

A 17-year-old player in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong province, was diagnosed with a cerebral infarction in April after playing the game for 40 hours nonstop. And some kids clandestinely run up a bill of tens of thousands of yuan on their parents' credit cards through in-app purchases while playing the game.

Tencent's move aimed at preventing young gamers from becoming online addicts is welcome, but not enough. Its commitment to ensuring "reasonable gaming" may not hold up in the face of the colossal revenue, which is expected to reach 6 billion yuan per month during the summer holiday.

The authorities imposed harsh punishments on internet cafes catering to the underage. They have to do the same to mobile game providers now.