Around two-thirds of Chinese children are thought to play online games regularly. China has worried about what it sees as the addictive and corrupting qualities of video games for more than a decade.
In the past few months China’s authorities have gone after big
technology firms for alleged abuse of monopolistic power and the misuse of data. Its latest target is the gaming industry.
On August 30th the country announced its "anti-addiction system". New rules proclaimed that, in order to “effectively protect the physical and mental health of minors”, children under 18 would be allowed to play online games only between 8pm and 9pm on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. This system requires gamers to use their real names, and a government-issued identity number, to play online, and boots them from the game when their allotted time has expired.