(Yicai Global) Dec. 15 -- The policy China introduced in September to prevent gaming addiction among minors has had positive results, but there are still challenges such as underage players using adult accounts, according to Tencent Holdings, the world’s biggest publisher of video game titles.

Tencent has strictly carried out the policy since it was brought out and maintained good communication with the authorities, Zheng Lei, head of Tencent’s juvenile protection system, told the China Game Industry Annual Conference in Guangzhou today.

The Shenzhen-based tech giant has set up a team to devise related technologies and policies, with a budget of as much as CNY100 million (USD15.7 million), Zheng said.

But there are still many underage gamers using adult accounts, he said. Many buy them on e-commerce platforms, and the price has risen from tens of yuan to hundreds or even thousands, leading to cases of fraud, Zheng said. These problems can only be solved by the whole industry working together, he added.

Tencent Games has been working hard to promote cooperation, such as teaming up with mobile phone manufacturers and telecom operators to embed underage protection modules in handsets, and working with the Ministry of Education to promote the formation of an official juvenile protection platform, Zheng said.

The new policy is still in its early days, and no comprehensive solution is in sight, Zheng said, while noting that such policies have gone through an iterative process in other countries, often taking more than 10 years to achieve real results. China is responding quickly with policies and corporate restrictions, but more developed technologies will be required in the future.

Chinese regulators moved on Sept. 1 to slash the amount of time minors can spend playing online games. For Tencent, the share of minors’ game time in the home market that month fell to 0.7 percent from 6.4 percent a year earlier, while the share of revenue from underage gamers slipped from 4.8 percent to 1.1 percent, according to its third-quarter earnings report.

Tencent’s gaming income was CNY44.9 billion (USD7.1 billion) in the three months ended Sept. 30, as year-on-year growth slid to 8 percent from 17 percent in the first quarter and 12 percent in the second. The changes were not entirely due to the country’s new policy, Zheng told Yicai Global, without going into further detail.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Tom Litting