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Tencent Will Soon Require Chinese Users To Present IDs To Play Its Video Games (theverge.com)
China's Tencent will soon require gamers to prove their ages and identities against police records, according to a new official statement yesterday. Under the new system, users will need to register their Chinese national IDs in order to play any games from Tencent. The Verge reports: Ten mobile games will get the new verification system by the end of the year, and all games offered by Tencent, including PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and League of Legends, will get the system by 2019. Tencent has been criticized by state-run People's Daily, which called Arena of Valor "poison," after reports that students were ditching their homework to play the mobile game.
Tencent has also faced direct regulatory pressure this summer, after President Xi Jinping pointed out that too many children were nearsighted and said the government was taking action. Beijing officially ruled to ban new games, cementing an unofficial pause that started back in March, costing Tencent up to $1.5 billion in lost revenue as it was unable to launch games it had been developing. In September, Tencent imposed the new verification system on Arena of Valor and created a feature that blurs the screen if minors look too closely at it. The new system simply enforces rules that Tencent had in place since last year: barring gamers who are 12 and under from playing more than an hour a day and establishing a curfew of 9PM. Those who are 13 to 18 can play up to two hours a day. Still, the system won't prevent minors from borrowing the phones of their parents and other adults.
Tencent has also faced direct regulatory pressure this summer, after President Xi Jinping pointed out that too many children were nearsighted and said the government was taking action. Beijing officially ruled to ban new games, cementing an unofficial pause that started back in March, costing Tencent up to $1.5 billion in lost revenue as it was unable to launch games it had been developing. In September, Tencent imposed the new verification system on Arena of Valor and created a feature that blurs the screen if minors look too closely at it. The new system simply enforces rules that Tencent had in place since last year: barring gamers who are 12 and under from playing more than an hour a day and establishing a curfew of 9PM. Those who are 13 to 18 can play up to two hours a day. Still, the system won't prevent minors from borrowing the phones of their parents and other adults.
Can you still play video games in chinese muslim internment camps?
They are really Uyghur internment camps, not for muslims in general. The Hui people are muslim, but generally more assimilated than the Uyghurs, and none of them are interned.
Or are games only for non muslim chinese?
Anyone can play them. Only about 10% of the Uyghur population is interned, so the other 90% can play video games if they like. The CCP would prefer that over young men going to the mosque and causing trouble. Video games tend to have a pacifying social effect. It is the opium of the people.
I actually do find that it is healthier to keep kids away from overdosing on video games, rather encourage them to do more physical world social activities. The iron-fist way China approaches the issue can be debated, of course. But since becoming a dad of 2 year old twins I think quite a lot about good ways for them to explore and play. Currently they have almost no screentime (a bit of Peppa Pig etc every two days) and I intend to keep it that way, increasing the use of TV, ipads, videogames in moderation over time and rather let them play in other ways. I have seen other kids who are utterly addicted to video consoles and will not let that happen. I don't plan to be heavy handed about it, rather hope to enable them to find interest and joy in many other ways. Recently they started enjoying drawing scribbles with crayon for example, they were inspired by me often drawing little things for them. Parenting is a challenge, but so rewarding.
Good on China for only forcing some Muslims into concentration camps
They are not forced into internment camps because they are muslims, but because they are separatists.
Clearly they have learned from the British and Americans follies
Indeed. Time for some Whataboutism: British internment camps, were the first to target an entire population, and had a mortality rate of 50%. American internment camps during the Philippine-American War had a mortality rate of about 20%. There are no reports of excess deaths in the Chinese camps, so they still have some catching up to do.
Ebay just locked me out of the account I've had for years and years. Why? They want to know my real identity. They either wanted to send a text to my cell, call me voice, or have me upload a scan of my ID card. I used Ebay for a long time with no problems, and now suddenly they want my infoz? Let's clean our own house before we criticize others for doing the exact same thing.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Oh, well that clearly makes it all okay.
I never said it was "okay", and I certainly don't think it is. Explaining something and putting in context is not the same as approval.
Does Beijing pay you in yuan or imperialist Yankee petrodollars?
Bitcoin.