Recently, students in mainland China have completed their exams and officially kicked off their summer vacation. At the same time, the two major gaming giants, Tencent and NetEase, have stepped up their control measures regarding underage players. They announced a restricted gaming calendar for the summer of 2025, stipulating that minors can only log into games on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 8 PM to 9 PM, with a total gaming time over the summer not to exceed 27 hours.
According to new regulations, these measures will clearly restrict the gaming hours of underage players during holidays, continuing to align with real-name verification and other anti-addiction mechanisms. Additionally, NetEase has launched a program named Special Operation for the Governance of External Gaming Black and Grey Industries aimed at strengthening multi-faceted regulatory oversight. This initiative primarily focuses on combating the underground economy activities related to renting or selling gaming accounts, cleaning up false scam information on social platforms, and enhancing educational activities to improve the online literacy of young people, striving to create a safer gaming environment.
However, some students are still trying to bypass these restrictions, such as borrowing their parents' smartphones to log into games or using adult identification to register, in order to escape the system's limitations on gaming time. As a result, authorities and platforms are intensifying their technical and regulatory measures, aiming to reduce these loopholes. Moving forward, finding a balance between preventing gaming addiction and respecting players' autonomy will be a challenge that the entire gaming industry and society must address together.
