China's Tencent limits gaming for minors after media outcry

China’s biggest gaming company Tencent Holdings says it will limit gaming time for minors and ban children under 12 from making in-game purchases after a state media article called games “spiritual opium."

HONG KONG -- China’s biggest gaming company Tencent Holdings said Tuesday it would limit gaming time for minors and ban children under 12 from making in-game purchases after a state media article called games “spiritual opium." Tencent’s pledge to curb gaming for minors came hours after the company’s stock plunged as much as 11% following a critique published by the Economic Information Daily, a newspaper affiliated with China’s official Xinhua News Agency. The newspaper article had named Tencent’s wildly popular Honor of Kings game as one that minors were addicted to, and cited a student saying that some played the game for eight hours a day. The online article was removed hours later. “‘Spiritual opium’ has grown into an industry worth hundreds of billions,” the newspaper said, adding that no industry should be allowed to develop in a manner that will “destroy a generation.”