China has introduced a curfew on online gaming for minors as part of its initiatives to address video game addiction in the country.
China announced official government guidelines for online gaming platforms operating in the country on imposing a curfew for minors to solve video game addiction.
The guidelines will be applied to all online gaming providers, including Tencent, the biggest gaming company in the world. Under the new guidelines, gamers under the age of 18 will be prohibited from playing online games between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m.
Minors will only be allowed to play for 90 minutes on weekdays but on weekends and public holidays, they may be able to play up to three hours per day. The new rules will also restrict the amount of money that minors can transfer to their online gaming accounts.
Gamers aged between eight and 16 years old can only top up 200 yuan or $29 per month, while those between 16 and 18 years old will have a maximum monthly limit of 400 yuan or $57. China's General Administration of Press and Publication issued the guidelines on Tuesday.
State-run Xinhua News Agency reported that a spokesman for the administration said that the new rules were made to create a "clear internet space" and "protecting the physical and mental health of minors." The spokesman also said: "(This notice) has emphasized on the responsibility of the corporations, and has executed the government's duty to supervise the problem."
For the past few years, China has been making moves to increase regulation of the gaming industry in the country. In August 2018, the government announced plans to limit the number of new online games to "reduce nearsightedness in children and adolescents."
In 2017, it criticized a popular mobile game, "Honor of Kings", for allegedly causing addiction in young people. In June 2018, the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases included addiction to gaming, known officially as Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) into its list.
