#China bans minors from playing video games on school days

China is banning minors from playing online video games for more than three hours per week — and prohibiting the practice altogether during school days. 

In an effort to fight addiction, gamers under the age of 18 will be allowed to play only during the hours of 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and official holidays, China’s main state-run media agency Xinhua reported on Monday.

The news is part of a broader crackdown on tech in the country — and comes less than a month after Chinese state media slammed online games as “spiritual opium” threatening to “destroy a generation,” sending shares of game-makers plummeting. 

As part of the stringent rules revealed Monday, online game companies will be required to register gamers “using their real identifications,” meaning that crafty kids and teens will not be able to evade the ban by simply creating new accounts under fake names. 

State administrators will “deal with companies that fail to put measures in place,” Xinhua warned, citing a document from China’s National Press and Publication Administration. It was not immediately clear when the rules will take effect.

As part of a previous effort to combat video game addiction, China already imposed a much lighter cap on gaming hours in 2019. 

Under previous rules, gamers under the age of 18 were allowed to play for 90 minutes per day on weekdays and three hours per day on weekends and holidays. They were also blocked from playing between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. 

Monday’s new rules — which cut minors’ allowed gaming time from a maximum of 13.5 hours to just three hours most weeks — appear to have spooked investors. 

New York-traded shares of Chinese computer and mobile game developer NetEase were down 8.8 percent at $84.59 when US markets opened Monday, while shares of more diversified tech giant Tencent fell 2.5 percent to $57.50.  

China’s stricter gaming regulations are part of the government’s tighter stance toward tech that’s also affecting social media, delivery and ride-share companies. 

Earlier his month, the Chinese government took a board seat and stake in a China-based subsidiary of TikTok maker ByteDance, leading for calls from at least one US senator for TikTok to be banned. 

The country has also levied fines hefty fines against tech giants like Alibaba in antimonopoly cases — and targeted Chinese companies looking to go public in the US including ride-hailing app Didi and trucking tech firm Full Truck Alliance with probes shortly after their IPOs.