A Chinese public-interest group stated on Tuesday it’s suing Tencent over what it alleges is inappropriate content material for minors in the highest international sport developer’s flagship online game, Honor of Kings.
Beijing Teenagers Law Aid And Research Center stated it filed the lawsuit in a Beijing court docket on Tuesday, to mark the implementation of an amended safety of minors regulation.
The go well with, whose content material Reuters couldn’t independently verify, additionally coincides with an unprecedented antitrust crackdown by Beijing on some of China’s largest tech corporations that sources advised Reuters consists of Tencent.
The firm, which declined to remark when contacted by Reuters, has progressively lowered the really useful age restrict for the sport from 18 in 2017 to 12 this 12 months, the public-interest group stated.
In a posting on its social media account, it stated some of the sport’s characters wore low-cut garments and that its storyline tampered with historic figures and confirmed a scarcity of respect for conventional tradition – all of which made the sport inappropriate for younger customers.
“Game characters’ clothing is too revealing, while there is a lot of … low-taste content that is inappropriate for teenagers on its website and forums,” the group stated in the posting.
An in-game raffle additionally made younger gamers extra more likely to play the sport for longer, it stated.
Citing considerations about eye harm, Chinese authorities have sought to restrict hours that youngsters can spend taking part in video video games, and firms together with Tencent have put in place anti-addiction techniques that they are saying cap younger customers’ sport time.
Tencent stated final November that Honor of Kings, which is free to obtain however has paid-for in-play content material, had a document 100 million each day energetic customers worldwide.
Sources advised Reuters in April that China is making ready to tremendous Tencent, in all probability in extra of $1 billion (roughly Rs. 7,290 crores), for anticompetitive practices in some companies and for not correctly reporting previous acquisitions for antitrust critiques.
© Thomson Reuters 2021
