Millions of Chinese Kids Addicted to Online Games

Millions of young Chinese are addicted to unhealthy online games, a committee of China’s National People’s Congress reported. “Unhealthy” games in Chinese government standard refers to those that feature violence, pornography, and unpatriotic games.

Because of this, the Chinese government is calling for stricter monitoring of “unhealthy” Internet games, recommending that games should automatically log off once a set number of hours of continuous playing is reached. In 2006, Internet game developers were told to install technology that asks, or should we say demand, real name and identification number.

Li Jianguo, vice-chariman of the National People’s Congress said that Internet-addicted teenagers account for about 10 percent of China’s web users. With more than 200 million Internet users in China, that’s millions of “unhealthy” young Chinese and a huge business for “unhealthy” game developers.

But at times, I can’t blame these kids. They need some relaxation after competing at a young age at the Olympics or after a hard-days work manufacturing our cool iPhones or after lip-synching backstage because you’re not cute enough to be shown to the world. Okay, but please, when you relax, no “unhealthy” online games. Go play Halo3, instead.