Expanding beyond just video gaming, the youth in China are now also having their time on social media platforms limited.
The new policy comes from TikTok‘s Chinese parent company ByteDance, which has now imposed a 40-minute-per-day time limit on any Douyin (the Chinese equivalent of TikTok) users under the age of 14. Those falling under that age category will only be able to access the app for the allocated amount of time between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. as well, a window no doubt selected to try encourage children to sleep earlier. There’ll also be a real-name authentication for accounts now, and ByteDance is encouraging parents to help the kids either by setting up the authenticated account or change the app over to youth mode.
Youngsters having their access to social media and online services limited should come to no surprise for those who have been following recent developments in the country. Earlier last month, China also imposed new regulations that effectively limit video-gaming time for those under 18 to just one hour a day, and three days a week on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The one-hour slot has also specifically been chosen for 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., and the sudden influx of players during that hour left many game servers broken and unable to handle the surge in demand. Many younger players have begun renting adult accounts in hopes to sidestep the regulations, but China and Tencent are continuing to crack down on these cheaters with stricter registration methods, including access to players’ webcams in order to verify their age visually.
Elsewhere in the tech world, the U.S. probe into Binance has now expanded to include insider trading and market manipulation.
