Children in China will only be able to play online games for one hour on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in a desperate move by authorities to stop "youth video game addiction".
Youngsters aged under 18 will only be able to play between 8pm and 9pm - with a maximum time of just three hours a week.
Online gaming companies would be banned from providing gaming services to children in any form outside those hours, the new rules published by the National Press and Publication Administration say.
Gaming companies also need to make sure gamers use their real names and follows claims that youngsters were using adult IDs to get round previous rules.
Authorities had limited young players time to an hour and a half every day and up to three hours on holidays.
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Rui Ma, a US-based China tech analyst told the Guardian: “Beijing’s crackdowns on the gaming industry have been fairly consistent about protecting minors. Historically, the authorities have always had the intention to curb exposure from what they perceive to be a highly-addictive habit.
“It wouldn’t’ surprise me if there were further regulations in the months to come to protect minors from other harmful activities on the internet.”
Daniel Ahmad, a gaming analyst at Niko Partners, said it was the new policy is extremely restrictive.
He said: “There are around 110m minors in China that play video games today.
"According to Tencent, players under 16 account for approximately 2.6 per cent of its total player spend, which shows the overall impact won’t be too significant, but it’s still a notable chunk.”
