By Steve Ranger, 13 December 2006 12:40
NEWS
China is increasing its monitoring of imported online games to make sure that "illegal or improper" content is not added to them.
A circular issued by China's Press and Publication Administration said games distributors must provide detailed information about the games and "be honest" when applying for marketing approval for the games, according to the Xinhua news agency.
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Monitoring reports must be delivered to the government monthly, according to the circular, and serious violations would lead to operators being disqualified.
There has been a "rash of problems" with imported online games, some of which contain sensitive religious material or refer to territorial disputes, according to Xinhua.
It said some distributors had been deliberately concealing the content of the games when applying for approval and operators sometimes upgraded games with "improper" content.
Statistics show that imported online games represented 62.5 per cent of the 168 games operated in China at the end of 2004. Some imported games were criticised for violent or pornographic content, the report said.
China now has 23 million online game players - up from 13.8 million in 2003, with revenues expected to reach $1.8bn by 2010.
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