All Chinese Gamers Will Have to Verify Their Real Names by September

• China is about to roll out an ID authentication system for video game players, targeting minors.
• The point is to monitor screen times and impose limits that have been set by the state.
• This will violate children’s privacy rights in China, even when they’re just playing a game.

China has announced plans for a nationwide launch of a real-name verification system for gamers in the country. This has been years in the making, and it looks like the time to see it applied has finally come, with September 2020 being the deadline for the implementation of the verification systems on all game titles.

The announcement came from Feng Shixin of the Communist Party during the “ChinaJoy” gaming expo that happened in Shanghai between July 31 and August 3.

The government body responsible for this program is SAPP (State Administration of Press and Publications), and officially, they care about how much time and money minors spend on video games. There are specific rules set by the state, such as a playtime limit of 90 minutes on weekdays and of three hours on weekends or holidays, applying to anyone under 18 years old.

The state needs to know who is playing the game to enforce these regulations, though, so people will now have to connect their player profiles with their real names and ID numbers.

Tencent and NetEase are already offering ID verification systems in their games, even before that was made mandatory by the state. In response, bright and crafty kids have already found innovative workarounds that allow them to get past verification. But with facial recognition scans being considered almost certain, impersonating parents and grandparents will now get a lot more difficult for underage gamers.

Besides all that, there’s the obvious drawback of having your privacy blown just to enjoy playing a video game. Sure, protecting children from excessive screen exposure is important, but compromising their privacy to do this is unacceptable.

Youngsters should learn to cherish and protect their privacy rights, and not feel like they are being watched all the time. However, in countries like China, this is very far from what the state dictates and what the parents of these children are willing to accept.

Other announcements made during the “ChinaJoy” expo concern the continuation of the app inspections by the regulators, with thousands of apps being removed from the App Store this month after Apple closed an abused loophole.

Finally, some stats were presented, indicating that the COVID-19 has brought a “gaming boom” thanks to the lockdowns. The sales of Chinese games increased by 22% in the first two quarters of 2020, reaching the dizzying figure of $19.9 billion.