Tencent narrows kids’ playing time on video games labelled ‘spiritual opium’ by Chinese state media

Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings, which runs the world’s largest video gaming business by revenue, has significantly cut down playing time for minors on its flagship game Honour of Kings. The measures were taken in apparent response to claims that video gaming is harming teenagers in China. A report published by a newspaper affiliated with China’s official news agency Xinhua on August 3, 20201, called online gaming “spiritual opium”, singling out Tencent as a source of the problem.