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China halts unauthorised games livestreaming

Latest regulations apply to unauthorised and non-domestic games

China halts unauthorised games livestreaming

China has issued new regulations that prohibits the livestreaming of unauthorised video games.

Last Friday, Reuters reported that the new country-wide rule has been made by the National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) and applies to all platforms that allow livestreaming, meaning that only titles approved by related authorities may be live streamed.

Furthermore, the regulatory government body has stated that this also applies to the livestreaming of overseas games and competitions.

The latest changes

"For a period of time, issues such as chaotic online livestreaming and teenage addiction to games have raised widespread concerns in society and effective measures need to be taken urgently," said the NRTA in a post on its website.

In China, video games must be approved by the state in order to be commercially available, and the new changes to livestreaming by extension reflect this rule.

The recent changes follow the end of a nine-month freeze on new games licence approvals that saw 45 new games be officially approved.

Over the past few years, China has implemented several laws to increase the government’s regulation of video games, in particular, to limit the amount of time under 18s can play to address state-wide concerns of video game addiction.

Last year, the government implemented measures such as facial recognition software and a limit on play time - three hours a week - to target these concerns.

Last week, Tencent announced that it will be shutting down one of its services that allows Chinese gamers to access overseas games through the use of a network accelerating app.


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