TenCent CEO Called In for Violating Consumer Protection Policies

Tencent, an ever present technology company.

From communication to entertainment, Tencent launches software that is known to be the best in China. Due to the new outbreak of the Coronavirus, there has been a massive outbreak of gaming as everyone is recommended to stay home. Within a month, Tencent’s CEO Ma Huateng’s value skyrocketed to $7.7 billion, surpassing Ma Yun as the richest man in China.

But soon after this Ma Huateng was called in by the Jiangsu National Consumer Protection Commission. Due to the virus, students are not allowed to go back to school and are only able to have online classes. During this pandemic, many minors and children not only game excessively, but also irrationally consume products within the game.

In August 2019, Tencent already attempted to improve this situation by setting limitations on the amount of time for users under 18, where they can only play up to 1.5 hours during weekdays and 3 hours on weekends. However, it does not help with the excessive and irrational consumption within the game. Minors are able to spend their parents’ money without their knowledge by simply clicking buttons in the game. For example, there have been many incidents where students spend up to tens of thousands in the game without their parents’ knowledge.

Due to these problems, on April 28, the Jiangsu State Consumer Protection Commission conducted a group meeting with Tencent, requiring a new setting for face recognition prior to the top-up in a game, attempting to put a halt to problems such as addiction and excessive consumption within games.

Junior Ciro Wei, a Tencent gamer, said “I think this is a good and efficient way of making sure it’s the person who owns the card who pays for the game, which can prevent situations where the child spends tens of thousands without their parents knowing.”