Initiative Launched For Parents To Supervise Online Games In China

According to ifeng.com, an initiative has been launched in China to enable parents to supervise computer games that their children play.

The first batch of six online game operators who joined the initiative are Wanmei.com, Tencent, Shanda, Netease, Changyou and Giant Interactive. As initiators of the self-discipline program, the parties will arrange a special webpage on their own websites and provide a telephone number for parents ask questions about how best to supervise their children’s online game activities.

Parents can report and register their children’s game accounts with the operators if they find their children are addicted to a game, and once a parent’s report is verified, the operator will limit the child’s access to the games or stop providing service to them based on the request. Meanwhile, the operators plan to keep track of the account to make sure it is not used for playing other unregistered games.

China’s online game market scale reached CNY25.8 billion in 2009, which was an increase of 39.5% compared with that of 2008. With the expansion of the computer games market, such problems as Internet addiction has risen. The new initiative is expected to help effectively prevent online game addiction among teenagers.