Children under the age of 18 will only be allowed to play online videogames for one hour on Fridays, weekends and national holidays, the Chinese state has said, dubbing videogames “spiritual opium.”
According to the country’s National Press and Publication Administration, online gaming will only be allowed between 8pm and 9pm on certain days of the week, with the government instructing game companies to prevent children from playing outside of these times.
Reportedly, the government will be inspecting game companies to ensure that these time limits are being enforced.
These are not the first rules of their type in China – previously, online gaming was allowed for 90 minutes per day, and three hours on national holidays. Now this will be reduced even further.
A month ago, state-run media outlet Economic Information Daily asserted that many teenagers in China had become addicted to online games, with negative psychological effects.
After concerns were raised that children were using their parents ID documents to work around rules, in July of this year, Chinese gaming company Tencent rolled out facial recognition with a goal of preventing children from playing games between 10pm and 8am.