Screen Time(out)

The links between the prolonged use of video games and myopia in children and young adults is well documented. And though many countries are aware of the issue, they seem to have done little about it. (Incidentally, there are a few countries – the Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, South Korea – that heavily regulate video games based on their content and so are routinely avoided by the games marketing industry, but that is a different story…).

Ironically enough, China – the world’s biggest gaming market – seems to be the only country attempting to address the problem. China has been announcing measures to control video gaming behavior since 2018, with fewer foreign games receiving licenses. A spokesman for China’s General Administration of Press and Publication said in 2019 that new rules were aimed at “protecting the physical and mental health of minors.”

The announcement saw stocks of Chinese gaming companies plummeting. Then, in September 2021, China banned under-18s from playing online games for more than three hours per week – a move that delivered another big financial blow to the industry. By 2022, the country’s video games sales, for the first time in two decades, shrank by 10 percent. 

However, China has since demonstrated that it might be easing its regulatory hold on the gaming industry. In January 2023, the authorities granted new licenses to 44 imported games, and market analysts are now predicting a six percent growth in the industry in 2023. 

But accompanying this apparent thaw in the regulations is a move by a group of Chinese gaming and tech firms to establish a list of “self-discipline rules.” The rules don’t appear to highlight eyesight or myopia concerns specifically, but as well as counterfeiting, copyright disputes, and user privacy, they do aim to address “gaming addiction” and “excessive consumption.” Given that China is among the world’s “hot spots of myopia” – along with South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Japan – one can hope that such a move helps in some way to tackle the problem – and that companies in other gaming-obsessed nations will follow suit.

What advice do you offer to young gamers?