The Chinese Government has given online game operators until July 16 to implement a new system that restricts the amount of time children under-18 are allowed to play their games.
The new system will have players under-18 playing normally for 3 hours per day. The next 2 hours will yield only half the normal points. And after 5 hours of gameplay, players will gain no score at all and will be subjected every 15 minutes to the warning: "You have entered unhealthy game time, please go offline immediately to rest. If you do not, your health will be damaged and your points will be cut to zero."
Last year, there were 31.12 million online game players in China. Of them, only 10 percent were below 18, so games companies seem to have little problem with the new regulations as most of their customers are adults. However, there is concern that one element of the new scheme: "The system requires every online player to register with their real identity. This will scare away many adult and young users," BDA China chief analyst Liu Bin told People's Daily Online.
