Tencent cracks down on screen time after Chinese state media says gaming is ‘spiritual opium’

Tencent has announced new limits on the amount of time minors can spend playing the company’s online games, even as investors worry that China may extend its historic crackdown on the private sector to the gaming industry.

Those fears were stoked Tuesday after Economic Information Daily — a business newspaper owned by Xinhua News Agency, which is China’s official news outlet — published a lengthy analysis that used terms such as “opium” and “electronic drug” to describe the harmful effects of gaming on children.

“It turns out ‘spiritual opium’ has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry,” the article read. “Insiders warn: watch out for the harm of online games.”

The post, which has now been removed without any explanation, mentioned Tencent’s popular video game “Honor of Kings” as one of the gamesyoung people are addictedto, and said that “industry insiders should be vigilant of the harmful effects of online games, and that appropriate regulations should be adopted early on.”

Tencent’s shares fell over 10% in Hong Kong on Tuesday, but recovered some of the losses tofinish the day down 6%.

The stock rebounded 4.7% on Wednesday as Economic Information Daily republished its article — though with some changes. The new version scrubs the terms “spiritual opium” and “electronic drug.”

Tencent (TCEHY) said in a statement that its new restrictions will limit the ability for minors to play “Honor of Kings” to an hour on non-holidays andtwo hours on holidays.

“Minors under the age of 12 (primary school students) are prohibited from in-game spending,” the company added.

It also called for an industry-wide discussion on “the feasibility of banning primary school students under the age of 12 from playing games.”

In recent years, the Chinese government has sought to reverse what it sees as a growing trend of gaming addiction in young people, however Tencent’s restrictions are tighter than the ones Beijing had announced in 2019. According to those rules, gamers aged under 18 are banned from playing online games between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. On weekdays, minors can play for 90 minutes, while they may play up to three hours per day on weekends and holidays.

A photo taken on July 9, 2021 shows Tencent's game Honor of Kings at the Electronic Sports Human PK AI competition held at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2021 in Shanghai, China.

Massive sell-off

The attack instate media on the online gaming industry comes just a week after Chinese tech stocks suffered a massive sell-off that wiped out hundreds of billions of dollars in market value.

Tencent alone lost over $100 billion in market value in a matter of 48 hours as investors worried about China’s widening crackdown on theprivate sector.

As its shares tumbled, the Shenzhen-based companyalso temporarily suspended new user registrations for its WeChat messaging platform. It said the move was related to an upgrade of its security systems, in accordance with “relevant laws and regulations.”

Tencent was also hit by a regulatory order last month to scrap its plan to acquire another music streaming player, China Music Corporation. Regulators cited competition concerns, noting that Tencent has long been leading the market.

In recent months, Chinese tech giants have been caught in an unprecedented crackdown on sectors ranging from ride-hailing to education. Since February, shares of overseas-listed Chinese tech firms have lost a staggering $1.2 trillion in value, Goldman Sachs analysts said last week.

As far as the gaming industry is concerned, analysts say there’s not much chance of a big government crackdown.

The original Economic Information Daily article took a tone in “sharp contrast” to that held by regulators, according to analysts at Nomura, who said Wednesday that they doubted the piece would “foreshadow any big regulatory initiative towards the online game industry.”

— Sasha Chua and Laura He contributed to this report.