Underage children in China after government intervention, will now have to play on Internet up to a maximum of 3 hours per week.
Chinese gaming platforms like Tencent and NetEase should limit online gambling to minors to just three hours a week, following new rules imposed by regulators.
According to Bloomberg, citing state media reports, the change comes in response to growing concerns about gambling addiction and the wider crackdown on China 's tech giants.
Children under the age of 18 will now be limited to one hour of play, namely from 8 pm to 9 pm on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. And on holidays.
The limit until now (of course there was one!) was 1,5 hours of online play on most days. According to Reuters, the Companies game operators must restrict online play outside of these hours and must have a real name verification system in place to ensure the new rules are enforced.
Regulators say they will also work with parents and schools to help combat gambling addiction among young people.
The new rules, released today, come a month after an article was published by the state media describing online games as "intellectual opium". Although the phrase was later removed, the tone of the article, especially afterwards, left no doubt that the state intervention it was inevitable.