[File Photo: Pixabay]

Tencent Holdings, China’s largest gaming company issued an announcement on Monday, noting that a real name registration system, connected to China’s public security data base, will be applied to its new games to identify under-aged players and to help assist them better combat game addiction.

According to the announcement, all players will have to go through a compulsory registration procedure before playing the games and will be required to input their ID number as well as names. The registration will be based on data provided by China’s public security sectors and help prevent teenage users from assuming fake identities.

“Users under 12 years old can only play our video game for an hour per day, while the allocated gaming time for teenagers over 12 years old is two hours per day,” noted the announcement.

The announcement came after Chinese authorities issued a scheme in August, which curtails the number of online games and limits online play times for teenagers. This is both an effort to deal with game addiction and to curb the rise in nearsightedness among teenagers.

Following China gaming industry boom seen in recent years, teenage game addicts have caught both the government and the public’s attention, with many complaining that the lax of regulations has caused extensive game addiction among teenagers. According to a survey conducted by China’s Ministry of Education in 2018, around 18 percent of Chinese teenagers are at risk of developing video game addiction and play such games four to five hours every day.

“Tencent has set a good example for other internet enterprises, as such companies should take social responsibility and tackle the rising game addiction occurring within our youth population, working together with governmental sectors, parents and schools,” Liu Xingliang, head of the DCCI Internet Research Institute, told Xinhua.