High compliance and reduced online gaming time among Chinese adolescents after the 2021 gaming policy: Effects across all gamers, not just heavy users.

Abstract

Government policies have been proposed to mitigate excessive online gaming among adolescents, yet empirical evaluations of their effectiveness remain limited. Following China's 2021 online gaming policy, the strictest such regulation to date, we examined the compliance rate and alternative behaviors among heavy adolescent gamers. Several methodological concerns have been raised, including the omission of the 2019 policy, the narrow focus on heavy gamers, and ambiguities in key definitions. In this response, we address these concerns by clarifying the policy's independence, expanding the analysis to all adolescent participants, and incorporating pre- and post-policy gaming time as an additional measure of policy impact. Results from a broader sample (N = 2,715, mean age = 10.84) revealed a high compliance rate (93.6%) and a significant decrease in daily gaming time following the policy (60.12 vs. 43.52 min per day, p < 0.001). This reported gaming time may include offline or single-player gameplay. These findings support the conclusion that the 2021 policy significantly reduced adolescents' gaming time and achieved high compliance rates, though self-reported data may include offline gameplay and that historical policy context should be acknowledged in interpretation. Moreover, its longer-term effects on psychological well-being and physical health warrant further investigation.