Chinese League of Legends gets built-in anti-addiction tool

In an attempt to curb gaming addiction in China, Tencent and Riot Games have added an anti-addiction system to League of Legends.

The new system punts minors off the game if they’ve spent more than two hours per day playing, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times. Chinese games use national ID numbers to make accounts, meaning that these games can tell how old its players are.

The LA Times report also notes that other American-made games like World of Warcraft and Fortnite also have limits or penalties to get younger users off the games after playing for too long.

Earlier this year, the World Health Organization classified video game addiction as a mental health disorder, titled “gaming disorder.” Before that, China has tightened its laws surrounding video games, with the desire to limit minors’ time spent playing them.

A bulk of the restrictions come from a statement from the Chinese Ministry of Education, according to the LA Times report. The statement says that the ministry would want to limit how many online games are available to minors, as well as restrict the amount of time kids could spend playing. All of these changes are coming to games in China as a precaution before the government takes action.